Russia has announced it is suspending its involvement in the internationally-brokered deal that allows Ukraine to export grain from its Black Sea ports.
The move came hours after it accused Ukraine of a “massive” drone attack on the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea, the BBC has reported.
Meanwhile Ukraine’s foreign minister said Russia was “using a false pretext”.
Without offering any evidence whatsoever, evidence, Russia also accused British troops of being involved in Saturday’s attack – and in blowing up gas pipelines last month: the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Russia was “peddling false claims of an epic scale”.
Russia’s defence ministry says drones used in Saturday’s attack targeted ships involved in the grain deal. It said one vessel had received minor damage.
Hours later, a statement by the foreign ministry in Moscow said: “The Russian side cannot guarantee the safety of civilian dry cargo ships participating in the ‘Black Sea Initiative’, and suspends its implementation from today for an indefinite period.”
It said the move was “in connection with the actions of the Ukrainian armed forces, which were led by British specialists” and that these actions “were directed… against Russian ships that ensured the functioning of the said humanitarian corridor”.
Moscow claimed 16 aerial and maritime drones were destroyed, and that only a minesweeper had sustained damage, although some reports suggesting that the flagship frigate was also hit.
But Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia was using “a false pretext to block the grain corridor”.
The agreement, which was personally negotiated by the UN secretary general had allowed Ukraine to resume its Black Sea grain exports, which had been blocked when Russia invaded the country.
Image: Signing Ceremony of the Black Sea Grain Initiative in Istanbul, in the presence of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in 2022.
By Umut Çolak – Voice of America, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/…
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