The Kremlin said Wednesday it would consider cargo ships destined for Ukraine via the Black Sea potential military targets.
Ukraine has also warned that from Friday it may consider vessels heading to Russian ports “as carrying military cargo, with all the associated risks”.
Ukraine has previously said it would be ready to continue with grain exports from its southern ports following Moscow’s exit from the deal.
Kyiv has called on the UN and neighbouring countries to secure safe passage for cargoes through joint patrols.
ZELENSKYY SACKS AMBASSADOR
In Kyiv, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed the country’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Vadym Prystaiko, after he criticised the president’s response to a row over British military aid.
Prystaiko’s dismissal came after he criticised Zelenskyy’s sarcastic response to suggestions from British defence minister Ben Wallace that Ukraine should show more gratitude for arms supplies from its allies.
The row began when Wallace told journalists at a NATO summit in Vilnius this month that Britain is not an Amazon delivery service for weapons to Ukraine and suggested Kyiv could express more “gratitude”.
Zelenskyy responded at a press conference, saying he did not know how else to make clear Ukraine’s gratitude. “We could wake up in the morning and express our words of gratitude to the minister personally,” he said.
On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces have begun using United States-supplied cluster munitions, the White House said, as Kyiv seeks momentum in its grinding counteroffensive.
Washington provided the weapons to Ukraine for the first time earlier this month as Kyiv attempts to dislodge entrenched Russian forces and retake land lost in the early months of Moscow’s military operation last year.
The weapons, which disperse up to several hundred small explosive charges that can remain unexploded on the ground, are banned by many countries because of the long-term risks they pose to civilians.
Ukraine’s forces started using the munitions “in the last week or so”, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday.
“They’re using them appropriately, they’re using them effectively and they are actually having an impact on Russia’s defensive formations and Russia’s defensive manoeuvring,” he said.
Moscow’s forces are entrenched across swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine and over a month into Kyiv’s counteroffensive, large parts of the front appear to be frozen.
This week a senior presidential aide in Kyiv told AFP the operation would be “long and difficult”.
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