Russia’s Defence Ministry said all ships travelling to Ukraine considered to be potentially transporting military cargo.
Russian Defense Ministry Press Service shows, Russian navy ships take part in drills off Crimea in the Black Sea.
The Russian military is conducting massive drills in Crimea involving dozens of navy ships and thousands of troops in a show of force amid tensions with Ukraine.
The maneuvers were described as the largest since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula in 2014 and threw its weight behind separatist insurgents in eastern Ukraine.
(Russian Defense Ministry Press
Russia has warned that ships travelling to Ukraine’s Black Sea ports will be considered potential military targets, as Kyiv said it would set up a temporary shipping route to continue grain exports following Moscow’s withdrawal from a deal that permitted food shipments from Ukraine’s ports.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that it would deem all ships travelling to Ukraine to be potentially carrying military cargo on behalf of Kyiv and “the flag countries of such ships will be considered parties to the Ukrainian conflict”.
In a statement on the Telegram messaging app, the defence ministry said it would implement its new stance towards ships in the Black Sea starting at midnight Moscow time (21:00 GMT Wednesday).
The defence ministry did not say what actions it might take towards ships travelling to Ukraine.
Russia also declared southeastern and northwestern parts of the Black Sea’s international waters to be temporarily unsafe for navigation, the ministry said, without giving details about the parts of the sea which would be affected.
By Richard Koomson| mediacentralonline.info |Ghana
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