Moscow | Reuters – Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin on Friday accused Ukraine of using a grain export corridor in the Black Sea to launch “terrorist attacks” against Russian interests, including one this week on the Crimean Bridge.
Vershinin was addressing a briefing about Russia’s decision on Monday to quit the year-old Black Sea grain deal, in which Russia had guaranteed safe passage to ships exporting grain from Ukraine’s seaports despite what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Russia said a parallel memorandum pledging to facilitate its own food and fertiliser exports had been ignored. Since then, it has said any vessels travelling to Ukraine will be assumed to be carrying weapons, and their flag countries will be considered parties to the war.
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Ukraine has denied using the corridor for military purposes, but Vershinin alleged, without providing evidence, that there had been several instances of this.
“It was used – as we know, and we have also talked about it – to organise terrorist attacks,” he said.
“It was the Crimean Bridge, twice already; it was Sevastopol, remember last October.”
Attacks apparently carried out with naval drones have twice severely damaged the 19-km (12-mile) Crimean Bridge, a Russian flagship project that provides the only direct link between southern Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine and annexed in 2014. It has also been used to supply Russian troops fighting in southern Ukraine.
Kyiv implicitly acknowledged carrying out the first attack, in October, and Ukrainian media reported this week that Ukrainian security services had carried out the second.
Also last October, Moscow accused Ukraine of attacking the home base of the Russian navy’s Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol, in Crimea, with naval drones that had travelled from the Ukrainian port of Odesa via the waters of the safe corridor.
It also said the ships targeted had been involved in ensuring the security of the grain corridor.
Meanwhile, Vershinin also said Russia is negotiating exports of food to countries most in need after quitting the Black Sea grain initiative, but has not yet signed any contracts.
Vershinin said Russia was sticking to its plans to compensate those countries for the grain they would not receive now that Russia has quit the year-old deal, in which it had guaranteed safe passage to ships exporting grain from Ukraine, despite its conflict with its neighbour.
“Agreements on this matter have not yet been signed, but contacts are under way and these contacts will continue,” Vershinin said.
–Reporting by Reuters
