Russia on Saturday suspended a deal on grain exports from Ukrainian ports, vital to the world’s food supply, after a drone attack targeting its ships in annexed Crimea, which Moscow has blamed on Ukraine and the Greater -Brittany.
The grain agreement, concluded in July under the aegis of the UN and Turkey, had allowed the export of several million tonnes of grain stuck in Ukrainian ports since the start of the conflict in February. This blockage had caused food prices to soar, raising fears of famine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ramped up criticism of the deal in recent weeks, pointing out that exports from Russia, another major grain producer, were suffering because of the sanctions.
Moscow justified this suspension by a massive drone attack which on Saturday morning targeted military and civilian ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet stationed in the bay of Sevastopol, in annexed Crimea.
“In view of the terrorist act carried out by the kyiv regime with the participation of British experts against ships of the Black Sea Fleet and civilian ships involved in the security of grain corridors, Russia is suspending its participation in the implementation of the agreement on the export of agricultural products from Ukrainian ports,” the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Telegram.
Faced with these accusations, the British Defense reacted by denouncing “false information” intended to “divert attention”, while a Ukrainian official suggested that “negligent handling of explosives” by Russian forces was to the origin of the incident.
“Made up story”
Russian authorities say the attack took place in the early hours of Saturday with ‘nine unmanned aerial vehicles and seven autonomous maritime drones’, causing ‘minor damage’ to a minesweeper vessel and the bay’s containment boom of Sevastopol.
Crimea, annexed in March 2014 by Russia, serves as a logistical rear base for its offensive in Ukraine. Military and civilian installations have been targeted there several times in recent months.
“The preparation for this terrorist act and the training of military personnel of the 73rd Ukrainian Special Maritime Operations Center were carried out by British specialists based in Ochakov, in the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram.
Moscow has also accused London of being involved in the explosions that damaged the Russian Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September and promised to submit the question to the UN Security Council.
“Russia has repeatedly called for a joint investigation into the attacks […] The fact that Western countries have refused this proposal confirms it: they have something to hide,” Russian foreign affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
The British Ministry of Defense denounced a “fabricated story” by Russia to “distract attention from its disastrous management of the illegal invasion of Ukraine”.
An adviser to Ukrainian Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko assured him on Telegram that “as a result of careless handling of explosives in Sevastopol Bay, four warships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet exploded , including a frigate and a landing ship”.
“Makes the problems worse”
Shortly before the announcement of the suspension of the cereals agreement, the Russian Minister of Agriculture had once again criticized the text on television, accusing the EU countries of monopolizing Ukrainian exports which should return to the countries poor. These allegations had previously been denied by the coordination center located in Turkey.
“The grain agreement, unfortunately, not only did not solve the problems of the countries in need, but even aggravated them in a certain sense,” said Dmitry Patrushev, promising to deliver them free of charge up to to 500,000 tons of Russian grain.
On the ground on Saturday, the Ukrainian military reported fighting in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the east, including near Bakhmout, the only area where Russian troops have advanced in recent weeks, and shelling in several others. regions.
The pro-Russian separatists fighting alongside Moscow and kyiv have each announced a new prisoner exchange involving around 50 people on each side.
On the southern front, AFP journalists witnessed artillery battles in the village of Kobzartsi, the last town on the Ukrainian side before the line of contact with the Russians.
“It could go wrong there. But we know that they suffer much more on their side than on ours, ”assured a Ukrainian soldier, Oleksiï, in his twenties.
Both sides are preparing in this area for the battle for the city of Kherson, the regional capital, from where the occupation authorities have evacuated tens of thousands of civilians, what Ukraine has called “deportations”.