Kyiv and the West have condemned Russia’s decision to halt participation in a deal to allow grain shipments from Ukrainian ports, after Moscow said Ukraine’s forces working with “British specialists” had attacked its Black Sea naval fleet with marine and aerial drones.
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attack early on Saturday on the port of Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea, but video footage released by a Ukrainian journalist appeared to show a marine drone weaving through waves towards a Russian warship as a helicopter sprayed the sea with bullets in an attempt to destroy it.
Moscow said a minesweeper suffered minor damage in the attack, but other sources in Russia and Ukraine claimed that the Admiral Makarov — flagship of the Russian Black Sea fleet since the Moskva warship was sunk by Ukrainian missiles in April — may also have been hit.
“In light of the terrorist act carried out by the Kyiv regime with the participation of British specialists against ships of the Black Sea fleet and civilian vessels involved in the security of grain corridors, Russia suspends its participation in implementing the agreement on the export of agricultural products from Ukrainian ports,” Russia’s defence ministry said.
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The deal was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to lift Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports and ease fears over food shortages in parts of Africa and Asia, and more than nine million tonnes of grain and other food products have been shipped under the agreement since it was signed in July.
Moscow has repeatedly threatened to block extension of the agreement due to what it calls the West’s failure to implement part of the deal to remove impediments to trade in Russian food products and fertilisers.
US president Joe Biden said Russia’s decision was “purely outrageous” and would “increase starvation”, while his secretary of state Antony Blinken said “any act by Russia to disrupt these critical grain exports is essentially a statement that people and families around the world should pay more for food or go hungry”.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged Russia to reverse a decision that “puts at risk the main export route of much-needed grain and fertilisers to address the global food crisis caused by its war against Ukraine.”
Britain rejected Moscow’s claims that its military had worked with Ukraine to attack the Black Sea fleet and was also responsible for explosions last month that badly damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines that run under the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany.
The British defence ministry said that to distract from “their disastrous handling of the illegal invasion of Ukraine, the Russian ministry of defence is resorting to peddling false claims on an epic scale”.
Kyiv said Moscow was using the threat of global food shortages to try to generate more international pressure on Ukraine, having also raised the spectre of a possible nuclear disaster and potential use of a “dirty bomb” in the country.
“By suspending its participation in the grain deal on a false pretext of explosions 220 kilometres away from the grain corridor, Russia blocks two million tonnes of grain on 176 vessels already at sea,” Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter.
“Russia took the decision to resume its hunger games long ago and now tries to justify it,” he added.
The Kremlin blamed Kyiv for an explosion earlier this month that damaged part of the only bridge linking Russia to Crimea — which Moscow occupied in 2014 — and began waves of attacks with Iranian-supplied drones that have destroyed about a third of Ukraine’s power stations, causing prolonged blackouts as winter approaches.
