Russia Threatens Civilian Vessels in Black Sea, Ukraine Says

KYIV, July 28 (Reuters) – A senior Ukrainian official accused Russia on Friday of threatening civilian vessels in the Black Sea, and urged the international community to condemn what he said were “the methods of terrorists.”

Russia last week quit a U.N.-brokered deal allowing Ukraine, a major global grain producer, to safely export its grain via the Black Sea and warned that ships heading to Ukrainian seaports could be considered military targets.

“Russian warships are threatening civilians in the Black Sea, violating all norms of international maritime law,” Andriy Yermak, head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

In a separate statement, Ukraine’s border guard service said it had intercepted a warning communicated by Russia to a civilian vessel passing near a Ukrainian port on Thursday.

It did not identify the name of the ship or the port, but said: “The aggressor’s warships continue to behave brazenly and audaciously in the waters of the Black Sea, violating all the norms of international maritime law.”

The statement quoted the Russian party as saying: “I am warning you about the ban on movement to the ports of Ukraine.”

“Also, the transport of any cargo to Ukraine is considered by the Russian side to be the potential transportation of military cargo,” it was quoted as saying.

The country of the vessel’s flag would be considered a party to the conflict in Ukraine, it said.

Russia did not immediately respond to Yermak’s comments or to the border guard service’s statement.

Russia’s Federal Security Service said on Thursday it had found traces of explosives on board a foreign vessel en route from Turkey to Russia that had previously entered a Ukrainian port. It was the second such announcement this week involving a foreign ship heading to Russia to pick up grain.

Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, has carried out frequent air strikes on Ukrainian grain facilities since Moscow quit the Black Sea Grain Initiative brokered by the U.N. and Turkey in July last year.

Kyiv has suggested the attacks are intended to cut Ukraine off from the Black Sea and to elevate the importance of Russia as a global grain supplier.

(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka and Kyiv bureau; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Timothy Heritage)

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