In July, Russia ended its participation in the Black Sea Grains Agreement which allowed Ukraine to export agricultural products through the Black Sea. Moscow said it considered all ships heading for Ukrainian waters to potentially carry weapons.
Russia said in a statement on Sunday that its patrol vessel Vasily Bykov fired automatic weapons at the Palau-flagged vessel Sukru Okan after the vessel’s captain failed to respond to a request to stop for an inspection. .
Russia said the ship was heading for the Ukrainian port of Izmail. Refinitiv shipping data showed that the vessel was currently near the Bulgarian coast and heading for the Romanian port of Sulina.
“To forcibly stop the ship, warning shots were opened with automatic weapons,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The Russian military boarded the ship with the help of a Ka-29 helicopter, the ministry said.
“Once the inspection group completed its work on board, the Sukru Okan continued on its way to the port of Izmail,” the defense ministry said.
A Turkish Defense Ministry official said he had heard an incident had occurred involving a ship heading for Romania and that Ankara was investigating.
Reuters could not immediately reach the ship or its owners for comment.
A senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the incident was a “clear violation of international law of the sea, an act of piracy and a crime against civilian vessels of a third country in the waters of other states”. .
The adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, added on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that “Ukraine will draw all necessary conclusions and choose the best response possible.”
Zelenskiy did not mention the incident in his nightly video address.
Natalia Humeniuk, spokeswoman for the Southern Military Command, stressed that the Russian statement had not been confirmed by other official sources. “I think you have to draw attention to that and keep in mind the particularities of hybrid warfare,” she said in a televised address.
“This statement could be a signal for all civilian ships in the Black Sea,” she said, and called for all transport and shipping there to take place under international safeguards. Russia, she added, was trying to assert its right to stop a ship or deploy an aircraft in the Black Sea and “suffer no consequence”.
Black Sea at war?
Shooting at a merchant vessel will heighten the already acute concerns of shipowners, insurers and commodity traders about the potential dangers of being trapped in the Black Sea – the main route Ukraine and Russia use to ship their agricultural products to market.
Russia and Ukraine are two of the world’s leading agricultural producers and major players in the wheat, barley, maize, rapeseed, rapeseed oil, sunflower seed and oil markets. of sunflower. Russia also dominates the fertilizer market.
Since Russia quit the Black Sea grain deal, Moscow and Kiev have issued warnings and carried out attacks that have jittered global commodity, oil and shipping markets.
Russia said it would treat all vessels approaching Ukrainian ports as potential military vessels, and their flag states as fighters on the Ukrainian side. Russia also hit Ukrainian grain facilities on the Danube.
Ukraine responded with a similar threat to ships approaching Russian or Russian-held Ukrainian ports. Ukraine also attacked a Russian tanker and warship at its Novorossiysk naval base, next to a major grain and oil port.
Ukraine and the West say Russia’s measures amount to a de facto blockade of Ukrainian ports that threatens to cut off the flow of wheat and sunflower seeds from Ukraine to world markets.
Russia rejects this interpretation and claims that the West has not implemented a side agreement relaxing the rules for its own food and fertilizer exports.
