UK will provide protection for merchant ships in the Black Sea

The British government has announced that the military and security services of the United Kingdom will monitor the Black Sea in an attempt to deter Russia from hitting commercial ships transporting grain from Ukraine to developing countries, informs The Guardian newspaper, quoted by News.ro.

"We will use our intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance services to monitor Russian activity in the Black Sea, to draw Russia's attention if we see signs that it is preparing attacks on civilian shipping or infrastructure in the Black Sea, and to attribute the attacks to , to prevent "false flag" operations that try to evade Russia's blame," said a Downing Street press release before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak left for the G20 summit in New Delhi.

"As part of these surveillance operations, RAF aircraft are flying over the area to deter Russia from carrying out illegal strikes against civilian grain-carrying ships," the British government said.

Ahead of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's arrival in New Delhi for the G20 summit, Downing Street also announced that London will host a global summit on food security in November. The government has stated that this food conference will be a response to the fact that Vladimir Putin chose in July to withdraw from the agreement with Ukraine that allowed the safe transport of grain on the Black Sea.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the withdrawal from the grain pact "causes enormous suffering for millions of people".

"This initiative provided approximately 30 million tons of food to over 45 countries that really needed it. And now it doesn't exist anymore. You have seen since this initiative was withdrawn that food prices have risen dramatically. In the last month alone, the Russians have destroyed more grain than could feed, I think, a million people for a year. These are the consequences of what Russia is doing," the British prime minister said.