Tensions are rising in the Black Sea region days after Russia exited the grain deal. There are fears that the war will spill over from the eastern Ukrainian countryside to the sea as the Russian navy carried out a live fire “exercise" in the northwest Black Sea.
Earlier this week, Russia warned that it would consider ships travelling to Ukraine through the Black Sea as potential military targets.
A report by the news agency AFP said that Russian Navy’s Black Sea fleet carried out “live firing of anti-ship cruise missiles at the target ship in the combat training range in the northwestern part of the Black Sea”, citing a statement from the Russian defence ministry.
“The ships and fleet aviation worked out actions to isolate the area temporarily closed to navigation, and also carried out a set of measures to detain the offending ship,” the statement further added.
Russia earlier this week demarcated unspecified areas in the “northwestern and southeastern parts of the international waters of the Black Sea" as “temporarily dangerous for passage".
The Kremlin has been clear that establishing Black Sea shipment routes without Moscow’s participation is a chance laden with risks.
Ukraine said that it is prepared to continue exporting grain through its southern ports. On Thursday, in a tit-for-tat move said that ships going to Russian-controlled ports on the Black Sea will possibly be treated as military cargo.
The deal which was signed with the help of the United Nations and Turkey protected maritime exports and vessels transporting those exports.
The current steps make navigation in most of the Black Sea dangerous for vessels following bans from both nations.
Russia also struck military infrastructure overnight near the Black Sea port cities of Mykolaiv and Odessa in southern Ukraine. “Overnight Russia’s armed forces continued retaliatory strikes with sea and air-based weapons against production and storage sites for unmanned vessels in the Odessa region,” the Russian Army said.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres slammed the attacks and said their impact can be felt far beyond Ukraine. “These attacks are… having an impact well beyond Ukraine. We are already seeing the negative effect on global wheat and corn prices which hurts everyone, but especially vulnerable people in the global south,” Guterres said.