Ukraine live briefing: Russia pauses grain deal after Ukraine strikes warships in Sevastopol

Russia suspended its U.N.-brokered deal to allow Ukrainian grain shipments through the Black Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday

Ukraine live briefing: Russia pauses grain deal after Ukraine strikes warships in Sevastopol

By Kelly Kasulis Cho

, 

Victoria Bisset

, 

Andrea Salcedo

and 

Justine McDaniel

Updated October 29, 2022 at 12:58 p.m. EDT|Published October 29, 2022 at 2:00 a.m. EDT

The Sierra Leone-flagged cargo ship Razoni carries Ukrainian grain in the Black Sea on Aug. 2, shortly after the shipping deal was signed. (Yoruk Isik/Reuters)

Russia suspended its U.N.-brokered deal to allow Ukrainian grain shipments through the Black Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday, after a drone attack that damaged at least one of its warships near the Crimean city of Sevastopol. Ukraine and Russia signed the deal this summer after the Russian navy blockaded shipments from Odessa and two other Ukrainian ports. Last year, Ukraine accounted for 10 percent of global wheat exports, according to the United Nations.

One of Russia’s warships sustained “minor damage” in the attack, Moscow said earlier Saturday. Without offering evidence, the Defense Ministry accused Britain of training and guiding the Ukrainian unit behind the drone attack, and of being behind explosions that hit the Nord Stream gas pipelines carrying Russian gas to Europe in September.

Britain responded that Russia was making “false claims of an epic scale,” while a Ukrainian official appeared to mock Russia’s claims as ludicrous.

Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.

1. Key developments

· Saturday’s drone attacks off the Crimean city of Sevastopol lasted several hours, the Russian-installed governor, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said on Telegram. He urged residents not to write social media posts or share video about what they saw, saying that would provide Ukrainian forces with information about the city’s defenses. Sevastopol is the largest city in Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014.

· The strikes were carried out by Ukrainian special forces and destroyed at least three Russian warships, the Mariupol City Council said on Telegram. Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, tweeted earlier that “several” Russian warships were destroyed, including a frigate and a landing ship, “according to some sources.” The Washington Post could not verify the number of ships damaged or destroyed.

· Russia’s Defense Ministry accused British specialists of helping to plan the drone attacks, in comments reported by Russia’s RIA news agency. It also blamed the British Navy for recent explosions at the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

· Britain called Russia’s claims an “invented story” designed “to detract from their disastrous handling of the illegal invasion of Ukraine,” adding that it “says more about the arguments going on inside the Russian Government than it does about the West.” Meanwhile, Gerashchenko mocked the Russian claims, tweeting that people should listen to further military briefings from Russia “to find out what else [the U.K., U.S.] & combat mosquitoes are guilty of.”

· Any U.S. plans to send upgraded nuclear weapons to NATO bases in Europe will lower “the nuclear threshold,” Russia’s deputy foreign minister said Saturday, telling the RIA news agency that Moscow would account for the development in its military planning. Earlier this week, Politico reported that Washington had brought forward plans to store the more accurate B61-12 airdropped gravity bomb at NATO bases in Europe — although a Pentagon spokesman told the publication that the move was “in no way linked” to events in Ukraine and had not been sped up. Russia has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons since the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

· Zelensky said about 4 million people are under energy-use restrictions as Ukraine attempts to stretch scarce resources after Russian forces destroyed infrastructure around the country. His warning came as Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko told Britain’s Telegraph newspaper that the capital is preparing for the “worst-case scenario” as winter approaches and warned that people would freeze to death if Western countries do not send blankets and generators.

2. Battleground updates

· Some migrants in Russia have been swept into the ranks of the Russian military despite having no obligation to serve. Migrants seeking help from the Russian government have been coerced or tricked into signing papers, advocates say, while others were wrongly issued draft documents and sent to fight.

· The removal of the remains of a famous 18th-century Russian statesman from Kherson could be another sign of “Russian intent to expedite withdrawal” from the occupied southern Ukrainian region, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said in its daily update Saturday. Vladimir Saldo, the Kremlin-installed governor of Kherson, claimed earlier this week that the body of Prince Grigory Potemkin had been moved from the cathedral in the regional capital to east of the Dnieper River. Potemkin, the British ministry said, “is heavily associated with the Russian conquest of Ukrainian lands.”

· Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has cast doubt on Russia’s claims to have completed its call-up of 300,000 military reservists, adding that the Kremlin’s forces are “poorly prepared and equipped” and that “Russia may soon need a new wave of sending people to war.”

· Ukraine’s foreign minister urged Tehran to stop sending weapons to the Kremlin. Dmytro Kuleba spoke to his Iranian counterpart Friday and demanded that Tehran “immediately cease the flow of weapons to Russia used to kill civilians and destroy critical infrastructure in Ukraine,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter. Russia has been using Iranian-made drones against targets in Ukraine.

3. Global impact

· A group of House and Senate Republicans opposed Democratic Party-backed plans to fund Ukraine’s war effort with assets seized from Russia. The lawmakers objected to a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act conference report that would allow the United States to transfer proceeds of forfeited Russian property to Kyiv, several people involved with the negotiations told The Washington Post.

· The United States is giving an additional $275 million in defense aid to Ukraine, a smaller sum than was offered in previous packages. The Pentagon on Friday announced the aid, which will include ammunition, vehicles and satellite communications equipment but no counter-drone equipment or air defense systems. Zelensky thanked the United States for the package, which he said was composed of “much needed items for our defenders.”

· A key Putin ally has told Elon Musk to stop providing satellite internet access to Ukraine. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev wished Musk “good luck” on Friday after the billionaire took over the social media platform, adding: “And quit that Starlink in Ukraine business.” Earlier this week, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official warned that Russia could target commercial satellites it believed were being used for military purposes.

· U.N. Secretary General António Guterres urged participating countries to allow a renewal of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which is set to expire Nov. 19. The agreement facilitates the safe shipment of grains and fertilizer from Ukraine. Many countries, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, rely on Ukrainian grain and fertilizer to feed their populations. The initiative can be automatically renewed if no party objects.

4. From our correspondents

Russia is cultivating ties with Iran and Saudi Arabia as it desperately searches for allies. A hot-mic incident on pro-Kremlin television last week confirmed that drones manufactured in Iran were being used to kill Ukrainians, but Moscow’s and Tehran’s repeated denials highlight the two countries’ expanding common ground, writes Robyn Dixon in Riga, Latvia. Saudi Arabia believes that Washington is losing interest in its region, incentivizing it to cooperate more with Moscow.

Iranian diaspora members in Kyiv, Ukraine, protest the supply of Iranian-made drones to Russia on Friday. (Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Kareem Fahim contributed to this report.

The Washington Post