We consider ships in Ukrainian ports to be military targets

The Ministry of Defense of Russia announced on Wednesday that from July 20, all ships entering Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea will be considered as potential military cargo carriers. Correspondingly, the flag countries of such courts will be considered “involved in the Ukrainian conflict” on the side of Kyiv, the department said in a statement.

In addition, the Ministry of Defense clarifies that a number of marine areas in the northwestern and southeastern parts of the international waters of the Black Sea have been declared temporarily dangerous for shipping.

The Ministry of Defense’s statement followed Russia’s refusal on July 17 to extend its participation in the grain deal between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN. The agreement provided for the creation of a safe sea corridor for the exit of cargo ships with grain and other agricultural products from Ukrainian Black Sea ports for export, primarily to the poorest countries of Africa and the Middle East, which depend on the supply of both Ukrainian and Russian grain and oil crops.

In the last two days, the Russian army carried out a number of artillery strikes on cargo ports in the Odesa and Mykolaiv regions of Ukraine. According to the publication “Economicheskaya Pravda”, as a result of shelling in the port of Chernomorsk, about 60 thousand tons of grain, ready for shipment, were destroyed. Most of the grain export infrastructure of the port of Chernomorsk was also disabled. According to experts, it will take at least a year to fully restore the affected facilities.

The Minister of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine Mykola Solsky noted that if Ukraine cannot export food, the population of the poorest countries will be on the brink of survival. In addition, the world economy will suffer. “The price of grain will increase and not all countries will be able to afford to buy products, which means that the price of food products will increase significantly: flour, cereals, meat,” he said.

Russia’s exit from the grain deal caused a sharp rise in wheat and corn prices on world commodity markets. At the UN Security Council meeting on Monday, the majority of countries called on Russia to resume the grain deal, thanks to which food prices will be reduced by more than 23 percent since the beginning of the war. Head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen named Russia’s decision to withdraw from the grain deal is cynical. She also promised that the European Union will continue exporting Ukrainian agricultural products.

Deputy Russian Ambassador Dmitry Polyansky, in turn, repeated Moscow’s arguments that no progress had been made in improving Russian exports during the period of validity of the agreement. He also accused Ukraine of using “the open maritime humanitarian corridor as a screen for provocations and attacks against Russian civilian and military facilities.”

• The grain deal, according to which food is exported from Black Sea ports blocked by Russia, was concluded in July last year with the assistance of Turkey and the UN. The agreement was extended several times. The last time was May 17.
• One of the conditions put forward by Russia for the extension of the grain transaction is the reconnection of Rosselkhozbank to the SWIFT international bank payment processing system, from which it was disconnected due to sanctions. Moscow also insists on removing obstacles to the export of Russian grain, fertilizers and ammonia supplies to Europe through Ukraine.