Russian warship fires warning shots on cargo ship in Black Sea
A Russian warship fired warning shots with automatic weapons on a Palau-flagged ship in the Black Sea as it made its way towards Ukraine, the Kremlin said.
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 towards Ukraine, the Russian defense ministry said.
Russia last month scuppered a U.N.-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.
Russia said in a statement that its Vasily Bykov patrol ship had fired automatic weapons on the Sukru Okan vessel after the latter’s captain failed to respond to a request to halt for an inspection.
The Sukru Okan was making its way towards the Ukrainian port of Izmail, the defense ministry said. Refinitiv shipping data showed the ship was heading north towards the coast of Bulgaria.
“To forcibly stop the vessel, warning fire was opened from automatic weapons,” the Russian defence ministry said.
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