Days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia would have no navy left if they continued assaulting his country, Ukraine declared that Russian transport vessels in the Black Sea are military targets, Breitbart reported Thursday.
Oleg Ustenko, an economic adviser to Zelenskyy, on Tuesday stated that "Everything the Russians are moving back and forth on the Black Sea" — including ports and ships exporting oil from Russia — "are our valid military targets."
The Breitbart report noted that this move to strike further away from Ukraine's coasts is in response to what they say are vengeful actions by Russia, who last month withdrew from a U.N.-brokered grain deal that allowed safe passage for merchant ships to carry Ukrainian exports out of the Black Sea. They also launched a series of air attacks on Ukraine's ports.
"This story started with Russia blocking the grain corridor, threatening to attack our vessels, destroying our ports," Ustenko said, according to Politico. "Our maritime infrastructure is under constant attack."
Ukraine had officially declared Russia's Black Sea ports areas of military activity in July, which resulted in merchant shipping insurance premiums to skyrocket and made dealing with Russian commerce far more costly for outsiders, Breitbart reported.
"All vessels in the Black Sea waters, heading to the ports of the Russian Federation or to the temporarily occupied ports of Ukraine, may be considered for risk assessment as vessels carrying a military cargo," the declaration stated.
Zelenskyy followed up with his own comments on Monday, according to Ukraine state media organization Ukrinform, and said that Ukraine had to assert its right to navigate the Black Sea.
"If Russia continues to dominate the Black Sea and block it with missiles, then Ukraine will do the same, which is a fair defense," Zelenskyy said. "We don't have many weapons, but if they continue to shoot, they may be left without ships until the end of the war."
Though its navy is sizable, Russia's ship presence is limited in the Black Sea, which in most cases can only be reached through the Turkey-controlled Bosphorus Strait. Breitbart reported that Ukraine is looking to turn this to its advantage and investigating new avenues of sea warfare, including the use of sea drones.
Ukraine's efforts found success last week after launching two explosives-loaded drone strikes, including one on the Russian port Novorossiysk, and one that seriously damaged the Cold War-era landing vessel Olenegorsky Gornyak as well as a tanker that was carrying fuel for Russian troops.
Following Ukraine's drone strikes, the U.K.'s Ministry of Defence stated in one of their periodical intelligence digests: "The attacks show that USV [drone] operations are increasingly a major component of modern naval warfare and can be turned against the weakest links of Russia's sea supply lanes."
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