Russia fires 'warning shots' at cargo ship heading to Ukraine

Cargo ship heading to Ukraine comes under fire from ‘warning shots’ in the Black Sea from Russian forces after grain deal is axed

• Warship fired ‘warning shots’ at the cargo vessel in the southwestern Black Sea 
• Russian military also boarded the vessel with the help of a Ka-29 helicopter 

A cargo ship heading to Ukraine has come under fire after a Russian warship fired ‘warning shots’ at the vessel in the southwestern Black Sea.

Russia said today its Vasily Bykov patrol ship fired automatic weapons on the Palau-flagged Sukru Okan when the captain of the dry cargo ship failed to respond to a request to stop for an inspection.

‘To forcibly stop the vessel, warning fire was opened from automatic weapons,’ the Russian defence ministry said in a statement said, adding that the Russian military also boarded the vessel with the help of a Ka-29 helicopter. 

Shots were fired as the ship made its way northwards, marking the first time Russia has fired on merchant shipping beyond Ukraine since exiting a landmark UN-brokered grain deal last month.

Russia last month halted participation in the grain deal that allowed Ukraine to export agricultural produce via the Black Sea, claiming it deemed all ships heading to Ukrainian waters to be potentially carrying weapons.

A cargo ship heading to Ukraine has come under fire after a Russian warship fired ‘warning shots’ at the vessel in the southwestern Black Sea

Russia said today its Vasily Bykov patrol ship fired automatic weapons on the Palau-flagged Sukru Okan when the captain of the dry cargo ship failed to respond to a request to stop for an inspection. The ship is pictured above

Russia said the vessel was making its way toward the Ukrainian port of Izmail. Refinitiv shipping data showed the ship was currently near the coast of Bulgaria and heading toward the Romanian port of Sulina.

‘After the inspection group completed its work on board, the Sukru Okan continued on its way to the port of Izmail,’ the defence ministry said.

A Turkish defence ministry official said he had heard an incident had taken place involving a ship heading for Romania, and that Ankara was looking into it.

The vessels nor its owners were immediately able to be reached for comment.

A senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the incident was a ‘clear violation of international law of the sea, an act of piracy and a crime against civilian vessels of a third country in the waters of other states.’

The adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, added on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that ‘Ukraine will draw all the necessary conclusions and choose the best possible response.’

Zelensky did not mention the incident in his nightly video address.

The Russian defence ministry said that ‘warning fire’ was opened on the ship from ‘automatic weapons’ in a bid to ‘forcibly stop the vessel’. Russian President Vladimir Putin is pictured on Friday

Mykhailo Podolyak said the incident was a ‘clear violation of international law of the sea, an act of piracy and a crime against civilian vessels of a third country in the waters of other states’

Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for the southern military command, stressed that the Russian statement had not been confirmed by other official sources. ‘I believe that attention should be drawn to this and the peculiarities of hybrid warfare should be kept in mind,’ she said in televised remarks.

‘This statement could be a signal to all civilian vessels in the Black Sea,’ she said, and called for all transportation and navigation there to be conducted under international guarantees. Russia, she added, was trying to assert its right to stop a ship or deploy aircraft in the Black Sea and ‘face no consequences.’

Firing on a merchant vessel will ratchet up already acute concerns among shipowners, insurers and commodity traders about the potential dangers of getting ensnared in the Black Sea – the main route that both Ukraine and Russia use to get their agricultural produce to market. 

Russia and Ukraine are two of the world’s 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 fertiliser market.

Since Russia left the Black Sea grain deal, both Moscow and Kyiv have issued warnings and carried out attacks that have sent jitters through global commodity, oil and shipping markets.

Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, added that ‘Ukraine will draw all the necessary conclusions and choose the best possible response. Pictured: Zelensky earlier this month

Russia has said it will treat any ships approaching Ukrainian ports as potential military vessels, and their flag countries as combatants on the Ukrainian side. Russia also struck Ukrainian grain facilities on the Danube.

Ukraine responded with a similar threat to ships approaching Russian or Russian-held Ukrainian ports. Ukraine also attacked a Russian oil tanker and a warship at its Novorossiysk naval base, next door to a major grain and oil port.

Ukraine and the West say Russia’s 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.

Russia dismisses that interpretation and says the West failed to implement a parallel agreement easing rules for its own food and fertiliser exports.

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