Russia warned that from Thursday any ships traveling to Ukraine's Black Sea ports will be seen as possibly carrying military cargoes, after Ukraine said it was setting up a temporary shipping route to try and continue its grain exports.
The moves by both countries on Wednesday came just days after Russia quit a deal - brokered by the United Nations and Turkey - that allowed the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain for the past year, and revoked guarantees of safe navigation.
Ukraine has made clear that it wants to try and continue its Black Sea grain shipments and told the U.N. shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), that it had "decided to establish on a temporary basis a recommended maritime route."
But Russia's Defence Ministry then said it would deem all ships travelling to Ukraine to be potentially carrying military cargo and "the flag countries of such ships will be considered parties to the Ukrainian conflict".
In a statement on the Telegram messaging app, it said the move would start at midnight Moscow time (2100 GMT Wednesday).
The Defence Ministry did not say what actions it might take.
Russia was also declaring southeastern and northwestern parts of the Black Sea's international waters to be temporarily unsafe for navigation, the ministry said, without giving details about the parts of the sea which would be affected.
Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of damaging grain export infrastructure in "hellish" overnight strikes focused on two of its Black Sea ports.
"In the ports that were attacked today, there was about a million tonnes of food stored. It is precisely that amount that should already have been delivered to consumer countries in Africa and Asia," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Wednesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accused Western countries of perverting the Black Sea grain deal for their own means, but said Russia would immediately return to the agreement if all its demands regarding its own exports were met.
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