Russia issued a warning after Ukraine announced it was establishing up a temporary shipping channel to try and maintain its grain exports, saying any ships going to Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea will be considered as potentially transporting military cargoes starting on Thursday.
The actions by both nations on Wednesday occurred only days after Russia renounced a pact that had been mediated by the UN and Turkey and had enabled the safe export of grain from Ukraine to the Black Sea for the previous year. Russia also canceled the guarantees of safe sailing.
Ukraine has informed the U.N., the International Maritime Organization (IMO), that it intends to try to maintain its grain supplies over the Black Sea and that it had made the decision to establish a suggested maritime route temporarily.
The flag countries of such ships will be regarded as parties to the Ukrainian conflict, the Russian Defense Ministry later declared, adding that it would consider all ships heading to Ukraine to be potentially carrying military supplies.
