Ukraine’s president’s chief of staff said on Friday that Russia was threatening civilian ships in the Black Sea and called on the international community to condemn what he called “terrorist methods”.
Last week, Russia abandoned a UN-brokered deal with Turkey that would allow Ukraine to safely export grain through the Black Sea and warned that ships headed for Ukrainian ports could be considered illegal. a military target.
“Russian warships threaten civilians in the Black Sea, violating all rules of international maritime law,” Andriy Yermak, head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
In a separate statement, Ukraine’s Border Guard said it intercepted an alert sent by a Russian warship to a civilian vessel near a Ukrainian port on Thursday. He did not identify the name of the ship or the port.
The statement quoted the Russian side as saying: “I warn you against banning travel to Ukrainian ports.”
“In addition, the carriage of any kind of cargo to Ukraine is considered by the Russian side as a possibility of transporting military goods,” he said, adding that the flag state of the ship would be considered.
