Russia-Ukraine war live: Moscow claims it has identified drones used in Black Sea Fleet attack | Ukraine

Wheat futures are expected to leap on Monday as Russia’s withdrawal from a Black Sea corridor agreement puts Ukrainian exports at risk, analysts said.

Wheat markets have been very sensitive to developments in Moscow’s eight month-old invasion of Ukraine, as both countries are among the world’s largest wheat exporters, Reuters reports. Ukraine is also a major corn supplier.

The establishment of the corridor, which allowed over 9m tonnes of grain and oilseed commodities to be shipped from Ukrainian ports, helped to steady grain markets and curb global prices after they hit record levels.

That relative calm is likely to end when Chicago and Paris wheat, the world’s two most-active wheat futures contracts, start their trading week on Monday.

“Russia’s announcement is certainly bullish for prices and the start of the week is very likely to see prices climb, simply because less grain is going to come out of Ukraine,” Arthur Portier of consultancy Agritel told Reuters.

A total of 218 vessels are “effectively blocked” due to Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in a grain export deal, Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry said on Sunday, Reuters reports.

Russia said on Saturday it suspended participation in the UN-brokered deal to export agricultural produce from Ukrainian ports following attacks on its fleet in Russian-annexed Crimea.

As Ukraine did not have permits from the scheme’s joint coordination centre to pass through the safe corridor, “218 vessels are …blocked in their current positions,” the ministry said via the Telegram messaging app.

The ministry said 95 loaded vessels that had left Ukrainian ports were awaiting inspection for shipment to the final consumer, and 101 empty ones awaited inspection at the entrance to Ukrainian ports.

It said 22 ships with agricultural goods were waiting to leave Ukrainian ports.
Ukraine has said the deal, which unblocked three Black Sea ports, has allowed it to export around 9m tonnes of agricultural cargo so far.

Summary

Turkey’s defence minister is in talks with counterparts in Moscow and Kyiv to try to revive the UN–brokered deal for exports of Ukrainian grain, the ministry said on Sunday.

Reuters reports that Hulusi Akar has asked parties to avoid any “provocation” that could affect the continuation of the deal, it said in a statement.

“The inspection of grain-laden vessels waiting in front of Bosphorus will continue today and tomorrow,” the statement said.

Moscow suspended its participation in the Black Sea deal on Saturday, effectively cutting shipments from Ukraine, one of the world’s top grain exporters, in response to what it called a Ukrainian drone attack on its fleet.

UN secretary general, António Guterres, is “deeply concerned” about the Ukraine Black Sea grain deal and has delayed his travel to Algiers for the Arab League Summit by a day to focus on the issue, a UN spokesperson said on Sunday.

Reuters reports that UN spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, said in a statement:

The secretary-general continues to engage in intense contacts aiming at the end of the Russian suspension of its participation.

The same engagement also aims at the renewal and full implementation of the initiative to facilitate exports of food and fertiliser from Ukraine, as well as removing the remaining obstacles to the exports of Russian food and fertiliser.

The BBC has published a detailed analysis of how much food has been shipped from Ukraine since the UN deal was brokered.

The first shipment left on 1 August after Russia lifted its naval blockade of Ukraine allowing ships to use a safe corridor through the Black Sea.

Millions of tonnes of grain and foodstuffs like maize and sunflower oil had been stuck in Ukraine after the Russian invasion.

As of 24 October, more than 8.6m tonnes of grain and other foodstuffs had been shipped from Ukrainian ports, according to the UN.

Although some foodstuffs have gone directly to the poorest countries in the world, UN figures show that the biggest quantities have at least been initially shipped to Spain, Turkey, Italy, China and Netherlands. The UN said in September that just under 30% had gone to lower-income countries, while 44% had been shipped to high-income countries.

But the UN notes that grain that reaches a destination may well be processed and then shipped on somewhere else.

You can find the BBC analysis here:

Nato on Sunday called on Moscow to urgently renew the UN-brokered deal that enabled Ukraine to resume grain exports via the Black Sea amid a global food crisis.

Nato spokesperson Oana Lungescu said

President Putin must stop weaponising food and end his illegal war on Ukraine.

We call on Russia to reconsider its decision and renew the deal urgently, enabling food to reach those who need it most.

All Nato allies had welcomed the agreement that came about with the help of Turkey, she noted.

These exports have helped reduce food prices the world over.

More on Russia’s defence ministry claim on Sunday that it had recovered and analysed the wreckage of drones used to attack ships from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea on Saturday. It claims that the drones were equipped with Canadian-made navigation.

Reuters reports that the ministry has said Ukraine attacked the Black Sea Fleet near Sevastopol with 16 drones early on Saturday, and that British navy “specialists” had helped coordinate what it called a terrorist attack, a claim Britain has denied.

Russia said it had repelled the attack but that the ships targeted were involved in ensuring the grain corridor out of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.

Ukrainian officials have suggested that Russia itself may have been responsible for the explosions, which it has used as a pretext to
pull out of a UN-brokered grain deal, a move that undermines efforts to ease a global food crisis, Reuters reports.

Reuters said it was not immediately able to verify either side’s claims.

The Russian defence ministry said in a statement:

According to the results of the information recovered from the navigation receiver’s memory, it was established that the launch of maritime drones was carried out from the coast near the city of Odesa.

It said the drones had moved along the “grain corridor” security zone, before changing course to head for Russia’s naval base in Sevastopol, the largest city on the Crimean peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The ministry said one of the maritime drones appeared to have started from within the security zone of grain corridor itself.

This may indicate the preliminary launch of this device from aboard one of the civilian vessels chartered by Kyiv or its Western patrons for the export of agricultural products from the seaports of Ukraine.

People venture out from their underground shelters to receive aid in the eastern Donbas region of Bakhmut, Ukraine.

Russia claims to have identified the drones used in Black Sea Fleet attack

Poland and its European Union partners stand ready to provide Ukraine with further help in the transportation of essential goods after Russia pulled out of a grain deal, the foreign ministry in Warsaw said.

Russia’s decision to exit the UN-brokered deal that enabled Ukraine to export grain via the Black Sea offered “yet more proof that Moscow is not willing to uphold any international agreements”, the ministry added on Twitter.

Poland said today that together with its European partners it is ready to provide Ukraine with further help in the transportation of essential goods after Russia pulled out of a grain deal, the foreign ministry in Warsaw said on Sunday.

Russia’s decision to exit the UN-brokered deal that enabled Ukraine to export grain via the Black Sea offered “yet more proof that Moscow is not willing to uphold any international agreements”, the ministry added on Twitter.

The Russian army repelled attacks by Ukrainian forces in the Kharkiv, Kherson and Luhansk regions, Russian news agencies cited the defence ministry as saying on Sunday.

The ministry said Ukrainian artillery had fired near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, but that the radiation situation remained normal, TASS reported.

Reuters said it could not immediately verify battlefield reports.

Ukrainian electricity supplies were recovering after Russian attack on generating plants, but emergency blackouts may still be needed.

James Tapper

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd will resume using Russian airspace on some flights, the airline said on Sunday, restarting flights it had stopped after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February.

Cathay Pacific will begin flying from New York to Hong Kong using the popular “Polar route” from Tuesday, the company told Reuters in an emailed statement.

Citing strong headwinds and payload issues affecting its flights from the East Coast of North America to Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific said it will overfly the far eastern part of Russia.

“The Polar Route provides a safe, direct and the fastest flight experience to our customers travelling from the East Coast of North America to Hong Kong,” the airline said, adding that there were no sanctions preventing it from doing so.

Cathay Pacific said in March that it was not routing flights through Russia’s airspace, avoiding the area after the invasion of Ukraine despite longer flight times.

Russia this year closed its airspace to European and US airlines, forcing some long-haul flights to Asia to take longer routes.

Bloomberg News was first to report the resumption.