MOSCOW
\nA Russian warship fired warning shots with automatic weapons on Sunday on a Palau-flagged dry cargo ship in the southwestern Black Sea as it made its way toward Ukraine, the Russian defense ministry said.
\nRussia last month scuppered a UN-brokered grain deal that ensured Ukraine could get its agricultural produce to market via the Black Sea and Moscow cautioned that it would deem all ships heading to Ukrainian waters to be potentially carrying weapons.
\nRussia said in a statement that its Vasily Bykov patrol ship had fired automatic weapons on the Sukru Okan vessel after the latter\u2019s captain failed to respond to a request to halt for an inspection.
\nThe Sukru Okan was making its way toward the Ukrainian port of Izmail, the defense ministry said. Refinitiv shipping data showed the ship was heading north toward the coast of Bulgaria.
\n\u201cTo forcibly stop the vessel, warning fire was opened from automatic weapons,\u201d the Russian defense ministry said.
\nThe Russian military boarded the vessel with the help of a Ka-29 helicopter.
\n\u201cAfter the inspection group completed its work on board, the Sukru Okan continued on its way to the port of Izmail,\u201d the defense ministry said. Reuters could not immediately reach the vessel or its owners for comment.
\nUkraine and the West say Russia\u2019s steps amount to a de-facto blockade of Ukrainian ports that threatens to cut off the flow of wheat and sunflower seeds from Ukraine to world markets.
\nUkraine\u2019s response \u2014 sea-drone attacks on a Russian oil tanker and a warship at its Novorossiysk naval base, next door to a major grain and oil port \u2014 has added to these new dangers for transport in the Black Sea.
\nRussia and Ukraine are two of the world\u2019s top agricultural producers, and major players in the wheat, barley, maize, rapeseed, rapeseed oil, sunflower seed and sunflower oil markets. Russia is also dominant in the fertilizer market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW A Russian warship fired warning shots with automatic weapons on Sunday on a Palau-flagged dry cargo ship in the southwestern Black Sea as it made its way toward Ukraine, the Russian defense ministry said. Russia last month scuppered a UN-brokered grain deal that ensured Ukraine could get its agricultural produce to market via the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-349114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n