Ukraine warns ships using Russian-controlled ports as Black Sea crisis deepens

Kyiv’s military has warned that it will treat cargo ships sailing across the Black and Azov Seas to Russia and occupied parts of Ukraine as potential military targets, echoing a threat issued by Moscow after it scrapped a deal to allow grain shipments from Ukrainian ports.

Ukraine’s announcement came as Moscow reportedly allowed shipping to recommence through the Kerch Strait that links the Black and Azov Seas, and the Ukrainian ports of Odesa and Mykolaiv suffered another night of intense Russian missile and drone strikes, which killed at least two people and injured more than 20.

The Kremlin refused on Monday to extend a deal that allowed Ukraine to send nearly 33 million tonnes of food to world markets over the past year, because of the West’s alleged failure to implement parts of the pact that would boost Russian exports.

Kyiv called on the international community to continue the shipments without Russia’s involvement, but states, shipping lines and insurance firms are fearful after Moscow withdrew security guarantees and said it would now regard any ships sailing in or out of Ukrainian ports to be potential carriers of military cargo.

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Ukraine’s defence ministry said that from Friday all ships sailing “in the Black Sea towards seaports of the Russian Federation and Ukrainian seaports on temporarily occupied territory may be viewed by Ukraine as possible carriers of military cargo, with all associated risks”, and said the same warning applied to the Kerch Strait.

“By openly threatening civilian ships transporting food from Ukrainian ports, launching missile and drone attacks on civilian infrastructure in peaceful cities and deliberately creating a military threat on trade routes, the Kremlin has turned the Black Sea into a danger zone… Responsibility for all risks lies entirely with the Russian leadership,” Kyiv added.

“The fate of the cruiser Moskva proves that the defence forces of Ukraine have the necessary means to repel Russian aggression at sea,” the ministry said, referring to the former flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, which Ukrainian missiles sank in April 2022.

Russia has said it is ready to meet any shortfall in world grain supply caused by the end of the Black Sea deal, and industry sources told Reuters on Thursday that Moscow had allowed cargo ships to resume transit through the Kerch Strait, three days after an explosion damaged the main bridge linking Russia with occupied Crimea due to what the Kremlin called a Ukrainian attack using marine drones.

Russia has since subjected two of Ukraine’s main ports, Odesa and Mykolaiv, to three nights of heavy air strikes. Kyiv said that in the early hours of Thursday, at least two people were killed and 22 injured when Russia fired 38 cruise missiles and explosive drones at southern Ukraine, damaging port infrastructure, grain storage silos and residential areas. Eighteen of the rockets and drones were shot down.

Moscow claims only to be striking military-related targets during a full-scale invasion that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.

“Last night, the Russian armed forces continued delivering retaliatory strikes … against the production workshops and storage sites of marine drones,” Russia’s defence ministry said. “The goal of the strike was achieved. All designated targets were destroyed,”

The UN estimates that the Black Sea grain deal reduced world food prices by 20 per cent over the last year, and wheat prices have risen this week due to the latest crisis.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell lambasted Russia’s “barbarian attitude” and said its scuttling of the export deal and destruction of infrastructure and tens of thousands of tonnes of grain in Ukrainian ports would “create a huge food crisis in the world”.