The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that Moscow has moved to suspend its implementation of a U.N.-brokered grain deal which has seen more than 9 million tons of grain exported from Ukraine and has brought down global food prices.
The Russian declaration came one day after U.N. chief Antonio Guterres urged Russia and Ukraine to renew the deal
The U.N. chief underlined the urgency of renewing the deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July, which expires on Nov. 19, "to contribute to food security across the world, and to cushion the suffering that this global cost-of-living crisis is inflicting on billions of people," his spokesman said.
An adviser to Ukraine's Interior Ministry claimed that "careless handling of explosives" had caused blasts on four warships in Russia's Black Sea Fleet. Anton Gerashchenko wrote on Telegram that the vessels included a frigate, a landing ship and a ship that carried cruise missiles used in a deadly July attack on a western Ukrainian city.
The military's claims could not be independently verified. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address that the Russians were "dismantling the entire health care system" in Kherson and other occupied areas. Western analysts have long identified Bakhmut as an important target in Russia's stalled eastern offensive, one that would pave the way for Moscow's forces to threaten Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the two largest Ukrainian-held cities remaining in the long-embattled Donbas region.