Russia assures that the drones which attacked its fleet in Crimea took the secure corridor dedicated to the transport of cereals.
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HAShe day after a drone attack in Sevastopol against the Russian fleet, Moscow said it had recovered debris from the drones on Sunday. According to the Kremlin, these drones had used the secure corridor reserved for the transport of cereals and that one of them could have been launched from “a civilian ship”. “Sea drones were moving in the ‘grain corridor’ security zone,” the Russian Defense Ministry said, adding that it had “lifted up” drone debris from the sea.
Russian authorities say the attack took place in the early hours of Saturday with ‘nine unmanned aerial vehicles and seven autonomous maritime drones’, causing ‘minor damage’ to a minesweeper vessel and the bay’s containment boom of Sevastopol. Some of the drones had “navigation modules made in Canada”, the Russian Defense Ministry added on Sunday. One of them could have been launched “from one of the civilian ships chartered by kyiv or its Western masters for the export of agricultural products from the seaports of Ukraine”, he judged.
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Cereal exports have become “impossible”
Russia on Saturday suspended the deal on grain exports from Ukrainian ports, vital to the world’s food supply, after a drone attack in annexed Crimea, which Moscow blamed on Ukraine and Britain. Cereal exports from Ukrainian ports are again “impossible” due to the Russian blockade, the day after Moscow suspended the agreement on their delivery, the Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure said on Sunday.
According to Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, a ship loaded with 40 tons of grain should have left Ukraine on Sunday for Ethiopia, “but because of the blockade of the grain corridor by Russia, exports are impossible”, he said. stated on Twitter. The EU “urges Russia to reconsider its decision” to suspend the agreement on grain exports from Ukrainian ports, the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell said in a tweet on Sunday. This decision “endangers the main route of export of cereals and fertilizers which we need to respond to the world food crisis caused by the war” in Ukraine, he insisted.
Ship inspection to continue in Istanbul
Inspections of cargo ships loaded with Ukrainian grain will continue “today and tomorrow” in Istanbul, the Turkish Defense Ministry announced on Sunday. “It is planned to continue the inspection of grain-laden ships waiting in Istanbul today and tomorrow,” the ministry said in a statement. “Russian personnel working at the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul are still present at the Center. During this period, no ships will leave Ukraine,” he said.
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The Turkish Defense Ministry added that Russia had informed Ankara of its decision. A security source told Agence France-Presse on Saturday that Turkey had not been “officially notified”.