Moscow denies US claims that Russia plans to target civilian ships on Black Sea

Russia is not preparing to attack civilian ships in the Black Sea despite assertions by the United States, Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said on Thursday, in comments posted by his embassy.

On Wednesday, Moscow said it would deem all ships traveling to Ukrainian ports to be potential carriers of military cargo and their flag countries to be parties to the conflict on the Ukrainian side, after quitting a year-old deal to give ships exporting Ukrainian grain safe passage despite the war.

Commenting on the decision, a senior White House official said Wednesday that Russia may expand its targeting of Ukrainian grain facilities to include attacks on civilian shipping in the Black Sea.

“The Russian military may expand their targeting of Ukrainian grain facilities to include attacks against civilian shipping,” National Security Council spokesman Adam Hodge told AFP.

He said the allegation was based on newly declassified intelligence.

It came in the wake of a missile and drone attack by Russia against the port city of Odesa.

Moscow said its missiles targeted military objectives in Odesa but Hodge backed Ukrainian accusations that the attack destroyed “agricultural infrastructure and 60,000 tons of grain” lying ready for export.

According to the White House official, those kinds of attacks could now expand to civilian ships. And Russia is mounting an operation to make such attacks look like they were carried out by Ukraine, he said.

Hodge cited Russia’s release of a video showing its forces detecting and destroying an “alleged Ukrainian sea mine” on Wednesday.

At the same time, “our information indicates that Russia laid additional sea mines in the approaches to Ukrainian ports. We believe that this is a coordinated effort to justify any attacks against civilian ships in the Black Sea and lay blame on Ukraine for these attacks.”

The Russian defense ministry said all vessels sailing to Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea from now on will be regarded as potential carriers of military cargo and its flag states “will be considered to be involved in the Ukrainian conflict on the side of the Kyiv regime.”