Kremlin war chiefs have escalated fears of war in Ukraine spreading further into the Black Sea after holding threatening missile war games.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has already threatened to sink ships delivering cargo to Ukraine after suddenly canceling his wartime grain deal.
And Kyiv has responded angrily declaring that ships delivering to Russian ports will be classed as delivering military equipment. The live firing drills involving anti-ship cruise missiles were conducted from Moscow’s guided missile-firing Corvet Ivanovets.
UK Royal Navy diving specialists in Scotland are currently training Ukrainian forces on how to disarm and diffuse Russian bombs, mines, and booby traps from rivers, lakes, and seas.
In Russia’s drills the target ship was “destroyed” in the northwestern sector of the Black Sea, said the Russians. The drills were held after Russia again blitzed Ukrainian grain and agricultural warehouses linked to exports, so far destroying 100 tonnes of peas and 20 tonnes of barley.
The wanton destruction follows Moscow’s failure to renew a grain deal permitting Ukraine to export produce to the poorest countries of the world amid the ongoing war. Pakistan today has pleaded for a return to the grain agreement.
Putin has been accused of using food as a weapon of war. Russia this week announced it will now consider all ships heading to Ukrainian ports as possible carriers of military cargo.
As such, they will be seen as war targets, a sinister escalation of the war.
Naval spokesman Alexander Sakharov said: “Today in the Black Sea, as part of an attack missile group of two boats, exercises were conducted to deliver a missile strike against a mock enemy.
“During the drills, an exercise was performed using cruise missiles. The shooting was successful. The enemy was destroyed.”
The drills also involved the use of fleet aviation “to isolate the area temporarily closed to navigation” and carry out “measures to stop” vessels failing to obey Russian orders in the open sea.
Moscow has declared several maritime areas in the northwestern and southeastern parts of the international waters of the Black Sea “temporarily dangerous for navigation”.
Russian missile strikes overnight targeted grain warehouses at an agricultural company in the Odessa region, injuring two people, said Serhii Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odessa military administration.
“At dawn, the Russians fired Kalibr-type missiles from the missile carrier, which was put on duty in the Black Sea at night,” he said. “Unfortunately, grain terminals of one of the agricultural enterprises of the Odessa region were hit. The enemy destroyed 100 tonnes of peas and 20 tonnes of barley.”
