White House: Russia may attack civilian shipping in Black Sea

US issues dire warning that Russia might strike civilian grain ships in the Black Sea with underwater sea mines and then blame Ukraine for attacks

The White House warned on Wednesday that Russia may expand its targeting of Ukrainian grain facilities to include attacks against civilian shipping in the Black Sea.

Adam Hodge, White House National Security Council spokesperson, said U.S. officials have information indicating 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,’ he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday made clear that Russia was not continuing the grain deal allowing Ukraine to export food to the world’s most needy countries.

Both Odessa and Mykolaiv – targeted overnight by Russia – are the ports used to export grain.

The White House warned on Wednesday that Russia may expand its targeting of Ukrainian grain facilities to include attacks against civilian shipping in the Black Sea

A senior Russian politician said Monday that Russia should not renew the Black Sea deal that would allow the safe export of Ukrainian grain in light of the attack on the Crimean bridge.

Sergei Mironov, leader of the A Just Russia party in Russia’s parliament, said Moscow should instead respond by destroying Ukrainian infrastructure.

‘That is what we need to do, and not discuss a grain deal that helps Kyiv’s rulers and their Western masters line their pockets. There can be no grain deal after another terrorist attack,’ he said on Telegram.

And Russia today refused to extend the agreement that has enabled Ukraine to export grain from its Black Sea ports for the past year, complaining that promises to free up its own shipments of food and fertilizers had not been kept.

It comes amid what Kyiv has called a ‘complicated’ situation on the frontline of its counteroffensive in the east, while there has been some successes in the south.

‘The situation is complicated but under control (in the east),’ General Oleksander Syrskyi, commander of Ukrainian ground forces, said on the Telegram messaging app.

He said Russia had concentrated forces in the direction of Kupiansk in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, but that Ukrainian troops were holding them back.

Since Kyiv launched its counteroffensive in early June, aided by weapons supplied by its Western allies, it has taken back more than 81 square miles of land, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said on Monday.

But Russia still holds vast swathes of territory following its full-scale invasion in February 2022, and Ukrainian troops have encountered heavily defended positions and minefields.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the counteroffensive is ‘not succeeding’, and Moscow is also carrying out frequent air strikes across Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials have increasingly pointed to an intensification of Russian military activity near Kupiansk and nearby Lyman in the northeast. Both cities were retaken by Ukraine late last year.

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