JEDDAH: Russia issued a veiled threat on Monday to attack grain cargo ships in the Black Sea, a day after refusing to extend a key agreement allowing safe passage for vessels from Ukrainian ports.
Ukraine’s Black Sea ports were blockaded by Russian warships after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 until the agreement, brokered by the UN and Turkiye and signed in July 2022, allowed critical grain shipments to restart.
The Kremlin quit the deal on Monday, after months of complaining that elements of the agreement allowing the export of Russian food and fertilizers had not been honored.
Ukraine is the world’s biggest exporter of sunflower oil and a major producer of wheat, corn and barley, and a halt to supplies would have a devastating effect on global food security. The deal enabled the shipment of more than 32 million tons of Ukrainian grain over the past year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was prepared to keep exporting grain via the Black Sea despite Russia’s exit. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that the decision to quit the agreement meant Russia would lift “safe navigation guarantees” for cargo ships.
And Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Without appropriate security guarantees, certain risks arise in the Black Sea.” If a new arrangement to allow for exports were “formalized without Russia, then these risks should be taken into account,” he said.
Already, Russia launched an overnight attack on Odesa, home to the maritime terminals central to the export deal. Russian forces struck “facilities where terrorist acts against Russia had been prepared using unmanned boats,” the defense ministry said.
Kyiv’s military said it had destroyed six Kalibr missiles and 21 Iran-built attack drones, but that port facilities were damaged in the assault. “Unfortunately, the debris of the downed missiles and the blast wave from the downing damaged the port infrastructure facilities and several private homes,” Ukraine’s military southern command said.
Russia’s decision to quit the grain accord was a “huge mistake,” French President Emmanuel Macron said after a meeting of European, Latin American and Caribbean leaders in Brussels. Russian President Vladimir Putin had “decided to weaponize food,” Macron said.
In New Delhi, several G20 members condemned Russia’s move to quit the agreement, India’s finance minister said, as concerns rise in poorer countries over a rise in food prices.
“Several members condemned it and said it shouldn’t have happened ... passing through the Black Sea shouldn’t have been stopped or suspended,” Nirmala Sitharaman said.
However, the two-day G20 summit was unable to issue a final communique condemning the war in Ukraine because of dissent by Russia and China.
