Russia has announced an inspection of all ships in the Black Sea

Russia will inspect all ships in the Black Sea before taking any action against them, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said.

“We have to make sure the ship arrives with something bad, which means request, inspection if necessary to make sure it’s true or not,” he said (quoted by Interfax).

According to Vershinin, “this is completely logical, especially after the terrorist attacks that have taken place.” He also reminded that the “humanitarian sea corridor” no longer exists and is now a “zone of increased military threat”.

The deputy minister added that the transit of ships on the Black Sea will be discussed during the contacts between the Russian president and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan. Earlier, the latter said that he intended to persuade Vladimir Putin to “continue humanitarian activities” to export Ukrainian agricultural products.

After Moscow withdrew from the “grain deal”, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it would consider all ships bound for Ukrainian ports as “military targets” and launched massive attacks on the grain elevators and seaports of Odessa and Mykolaiv.

Kyiv has responded to the mirror image threat. “All ships sailing in the Black Sea towards the seaports of the Russian Federation and Ukrainian ports located in the temporarily occupied territory can be considered as carrying military cargo with all associated risks,” the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine said.

on the other hand President Volodymyr Zelensky instructed The Ministry of Foreign Affairs invites the UN and Turkey to continue work on the “grain corridor” bypassing Moscow. One option was to run through the territorial waters of Romania and Bulgaria. The allies were also offered to organize a military “grain corridor” patrol. Subsequently, the Russian Ministry of Defense conducted missile strikes on target ships in the Black Sea.

Meanwhile, Putin allowed the return to the “grain deal”, but set six conditions, including lifting the sanctions on the supply of Russian grain and fertilizers “to world markets”, connecting banks to SWIFT, resumption of imports of spare parts for agricultural machinery and restoration of the operation of the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline.