Moscow plans to attack civilian ships in the Black Sea with sea mines

“A Intelligence (…) suggests that Russia is trying to target civilian ships using the ‘humanitarian corridor’ in Ukraine, to stop the export of Ukrainian grain”, the British Foreign Office highlighted in a statement.

Moscow “will certainly want to avoid openly sinking civilian ships and will unfairly blame Ukraine for any attack”, he further highlighted.

This information “demonstrates the total disregard of the [Presidente russo Vladimir] Putin for civilian lives and the needs of the most vulnerable in the world”, while many African countries depend on Ukrainian agriculture for their cereal supply, denounced the head of British diplomacy, James Cleverly, cited in the press release.

By making this information public, “the United Kingdom intends to denounce Russian tactics and prevent such an incident from occurring”, London also stressed.

British diplomacy also highlighted that it is “working with Ukraine and other partners to implement measures that improve the security of maritime transport”.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the United Kingdom has mobilized intelligence assets to monitor Russian activity in the Black Sea.

According to London, since its withdrawal from the agreement on Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea in July, Russia has destroyed 130 port infrastructures in Ukraine and destroyed 300,000 tons of grain.

Last month, the United Kingdom had already accused Russian forces of having tried to destroy a Liberian-flagged civilian cargo ship docked in the port of Odessa at the end of August, with several missile attacks.

At the same time, Ukraine is carrying out its own drone attacks and bombings, which have become almost daily, against targets in Russia.

The Ukrainian counteroffensive completed four months this Wednesday with advances in the Russian bastion of Bakhmut (Donetsk), and in the region and Zaporijia (southeast) in addition to landing attempts in Crimea.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recognized the main challenges of the counteroffensive: the minefields laid by the Russians and the shortage of anti-aircraft defense systems and projectiles.

The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory, launched on February 24 last year, plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since the Second World War (1939-1945).

Ukraine’s Western allies have supplied weapons to Kiev and approved successive sanctions packages against Russian interests to try to diminish Moscow’s ability to finance the war effort.

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