Russia: Russia’s Defence Ministry has warned that ships travelling to Ukraine’s Black Sea ports will be considered potential military targets. The warning came after Ukraine said it would set up a temporary shipping route for grain exports following Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Deal.
The Defence Ministry stated that it would consider all ships travelling to Ukraine to be potentially carrying military cargo for Kyiv, and “the flag countries of such ships will be considered parties to the Ukrainian conflict.”
In a statement, the Ministry noted that it would implement its new step in the Black Sea starting at midnight Moscow time. The statement did not mention what actions it might take against ships travelling to Ukraine.
According to reports, Russia also declared southeastern and northwestern parts of the Black Sea’s international waters to be temporarily unsafe for navigation, without giving details about the parts of the sea that would be affected.
Recently, Ukraine announced that it was establishing a temporary shipping route via Romania, one of the neighbouring Black Sea countries.
“Its goal is to facilitate the unblocking of international shipping in the northwestern part of the Black Sea,” Mr. Vasyl Shkurakov, Minister for Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine, remarked in a letter to the United Nations shipping agency, the International Maritime Organisation.
“Russia was using food as a weapon of war,” US State Department spokesman Mr. Matthew Miller commented, noting that Moscow had made threats against ships in international waters on two consecutive days and attacked the Ukrainian port city of Odesa for two nights in a row.
RELATED | Russia suspends participation in Black Sea grain deal; Kremlin
