Russia announced on Wednesday that it would consider any ship heading for Ukraine’s Black Sea grain ports a military target, as Kiev, which accuses Moscow of bombing its grain terminals, calls for international escorts for such cargo ships after a crucial global food deal expires.
At the same time, Ukraine repeated that there could be no negotiations with Moscow and demanded from its Western allies hundreds of additional armored vehicles and American F-16 fighter jets to retake its territories.
“In terms of morale, we are holding up. We just want victory to come as soon as possible,” said a 23-year-old Ukrainian soldier, without giving his name and at an undisclosed location on the front line near Lyman.
Consequence of the blockage since Monday by Russia of the secure “corridor” in the Black Sea to export millions of tonnes of Ukrainian cereals by cargo ship, wheat closed at 253.75 euros per tonne on the European market, up more than 8%.
Given the risks, “there are no longer any shipowners ready to go there,” noted Frédéric Denefle, managing director of the Garex group, a specialist in war risk insurance.
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday that, from now on, “all ships sailing in the waters of the Black Sea bound for Ukrainian ports will be considered as ships potentially carrying military cargo”.
For its part, kyiv is now asking for the establishment of naval “military patrols” under a UN mandate and with the participation of Turkey, in particular, indicated Mykhaïlo Podoliak, adviser to the Ukrainian presidency. He has ruled out any negotiations with Moscow, whose objective is, according to him, to “destroy” Ukraine.
Strikes on Odessa
The country experienced a second consecutive night of Russian strikes on Odessa, a major Black Sea port.
According to the Ministry responsible for the reconstruction of Ukraine, “the grain terminals and port infrastructure” of the ports of Odessa and Chornomorsk were attacked, and “the silos and docks of the port of Odessa” were damaged in particular.
The attack, carried out with cruise missiles and explosive drones, left at least 12 injured, according to the governor of the Odessa region, Oleg Kiper. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russian troops of “deliberately” targeting his grain infrastructure.
The Russian army, for its part, claimed to have targeted only “military industrial sites, fuel infrastructure and ammunition depots of the Ukrainian army”.
A return of the cereal agreement?
The Kremlin warned on Tuesday of new “risks” in the Black Sea after the end of the grain agreement.
Vladimir Putin assured Wednesday that Russia was ready to return to the agreement if its demands were carried out “in their entirety” and accused the West of using this question as a tool of “political blackmail”.
In one year, the agreement had enabled nearly 33 million tonnes of grain to leave Ukrainian ports, helping to stabilize world food prices and ward off the risk of shortages.
Explosions in Crimea
In eastern Crimea, a fire on military land, accompanied by detonations which could be those of ammunition stocks, according to Russian online media, was still raging on Wednesday and required the evacuation of 4 adjacent localities, more than 2,000 people. Ukraine regularly strikes garrisons or stocks of Russian equipment deep in the lines, as far as the Crimean peninsula.
On Monday, the emblematic and strategically important bridge built by Russia between its territory and annexed Crimea was hit by a Ukrainian attack which partially destroyed it, for the second time in ten months.
On the front, the fighting is concentrated in eastern Ukraine. Near Kupyansk, in the northeast, Russia assured to have advanced by one kilometer.
According to the presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podoliak, Ukraine needs, to break the Russian lines, “additional armored vehicles, above all tanks”, aircraft and “additional anti-aircraft defense systems”.
The Pentagon on Wednesday announced a new US$1.3 billion military aid plan, including four air defense systems.