Russia wants to be able to inspect Ukraine-bound ships following its withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal, the country’s deputy foreign minister has said.
It comes after both Moscow and Kyiv announced that they will treat ships travelling to each other’s ports as potential military targets.
“We have to make sure that the ship is not carrying something bad, it means a request, inspection, if necessary, to make sure that this is the case or not,” Sergei Vershinin said.
“There is no longer a maritime humanitarian corridor, now there are, perhaps, zones of increased military danger.”
Russia suspended the grain deal and then announced it would consider all ships proceeding “to Ukrainian ports in Black Sea waters to be potential carriers of military cargo, even if they are trying to pick up grain and food to be able to feed people around the world,” John Kirby said.
Communications coordinator John Kirby said Russia is falsely trying to blame Ukraine for sea mines that Russia itself planted, releasing a video of a detonation it claimed was from a Ukrainian mine.
Kirby said the U.S. found it important to declassify and publicly share the information to warn that the Black Sea waters “are now more dangerous than they were before for civilian shipping, and that’s because of one party and one party only: and that’s Russia.”
How can we believe anything Kirby says? He has lied so many times.
Earlier Thursday, the U.S. also announced additional sanctions against Russia to limit its military capabilities further.
Unsurprisingly, Ukraine calls on all countries of the Free World to join “international patrols in the Black Sea” for the export of grain.
The United States is “deeply concerned” about Russian attacks in the Black Sea, the White House said Thursday.
“We’re deeply concerned about what we’re seeing in the Black Sea right now,” Olivia Dalton, White House deputy press secretary, told reporters on Air Force One, citing three straight days of Russian attacks on port cities and indications Russia could attack civilian ships in the area.
There is nothing left and no one there.
