Russian authorities announced Wednesday (July 19th) that they would consider a military target any ship heading for Ukrainian grain ports on the Black Sea, as Kiev, which accuses Moscow of bombing its grain terminals, calls for international escorts for these cargo ships after the expiry of a crucial agreement for world food.

Ukraine, whose counter-offensive is struggling for the moment to break through the lines of defense built by the Russians, at the same time repeated that there could be no negotiations with Moscow, and demanded from its Western allies hundreds more armor and US F-16 fighter jets to retake its territories.

“In terms of morale, we’re holding up. We just want victory to come as soon as possible,” a 23-year-old Ukrainian soldier told Agence France-Presse (AFP), without giving his name and at a secret location on the front near Lyman (east).

“No more shipowners ready to go there”

Consequence of the blockage since Monday by Russia of the secure “corridor” in the Black Sea which had been negotiated with Moscow through the UN and Turkey to export millions of tons of Ukrainian cereals by cargo ship, wheat closed at 253.75 euros per tonne on the European market, up more than 8%.

Given the risks, “there are no longer any shipowners ready to go there”, noted Frédéric Denefle, general manager of the Garex group, specialist in conflict risk insurance. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday that from now on “all ships sailing in the waters of the Black Sea bound for Ukrainian ports will be considered as ships potentially carrying military cargoes”.

According to Adam Hodge, spokesman for the US National Security Council, Moscow “could expand its targeting…to include attacks on civilian boats” and then “blame for those attacks on Ukraine.” These accusations are based on elements of the intelligence that have just been declassified, he said.

Kiev, for its part, is now asking for the establishment of naval “military patrols” under a UN mandate and with the participation in particular of Turkey, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, told AFP. He has ruled out any negotiations with Moscow, whose goal he says is to “destroy” Ukraine.

Strikes on Odessa

The country experienced a second consecutive night of Russian strikes on Odessa, a major Black Sea port. According to Ukraine’s reconstruction ministry, “grain terminals and port infrastructure” in the ports of Odessa and Chornomorsk were attacked, including “silos and docks in the port of Odessa” damaged . The attack, carried out with Iranian-made cruise missiles and explosive drones, left at least 12 injured, according to the governor of the Odessa region Oleg Kiper.

“Everyone is concerned about Russian terror,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily address, calling for “bringing Russia to justice for this terror.” Paris accused Moscow of posing “an irresponsible risk to global food security” and Berlin noted that Russian bombing indirectly “hits the world’s poorest”.

The Russian army, for its part, claimed to have targeted only “military industrial sites, fuel infrastructure and ammunition depots of the Ukrainian army”.

The Kremlin had warned on Tuesday of new “risks” in the Black Sea after the end of the grain agreement. Moscow has refused to renew this agreement signed in July 2022 under the aegis of the United Nations and Turkey, and has since been extended several times, denouncing obstacles to trade in its own fertilizers and food products.

Vladimir Putin assured Wednesday that Russia was ready to return to the agreement if its demands were carried out “in full”, and accused the West of using the issue as a tool of “political blackmail”. In one year, the agreement had allowed the release of nearly 33 million tonnes of grain from Ukrainian ports, helping to stabilize world food prices and avert the risk of shortages.