BRUSSELS, July 20. /TASS/. Russia’s decision to regard all ships going to Ukrainian ports across the Black Sea as carriers of military-purpose cargoes strips Ukraine of the chance to earn from its grain exports, so Brussels will step up its military aid to Kiev, EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said on Thursday.

The Russian decision "is a step further in order to continue preventing Ukraine from exporting their grains. It has two consequences, first for Ukraine itself, depriving it of resources," Borrell said ahead of a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council.

"There is only one solution: to increase military support to Ukraine. If they are being bombed, we have to provide anti-aerial capacity. If Russia is using drones, we have to provide them with anti-aerial capacity," he said. "I’m going to present a proposal to increase - I don’t want to say the figure right now, but after the meeting - in quite an important way the capacity of the European Peace Facility. This is becoming very serious."

He expressed hope that EU minister will back the proposal.

Politico earlier reported that Borrell’s plan stipulates expanding the European Peace Facility by 20 billion euros through 2027. That would allow Ukraine to receive as much military aid from the EU over the next four years as it got in 2022. The quantity of weapons and ammunition could fall though, because the supplies would be of new, more expensive items, rather than old inventories.

Borrell n Thursday essentially affirmed that the EU was preparing Ukraine for a years-long military conflict as he said the country needs a plan for supplies lasting over a long term, rather than on a month-by-month basis.

Grain deal

Borrell confirmed the information that was earlier reported by TASS, citing a source, that EU foreign ministers will address the ramifications of the end of the Black Sea grain deal on July 20. He accused Russia of deliberately destroying grain inventories at the Black Sea port of Odessa, saying the move escalated the conflict. The diplomat said the EU Foreign Affairs Council would consider the situation on Thursday, and aims to get more information from Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, who will join the meeting by video link.

"But what we already know is that this is going to create a big, huge food crisis in the world," Borrell said. "We will listen to Kuleba. We will discuss how to continue supporting Ukraine in the long run"

Russia’s decision

The grain deal expired on July 17. Russia had agreed to extend the agreement to provide a shipping corridor across the Black Sea for ships carrying Ukrainian grain several times since it had been signed in July 2022, but said that the Russia-related provisions of the deal, which called for removing hurdles to Russian farm exports, had not been fulfilled. Moscow also said that, although the agreements were intended to direct food supplies to the poorest countries, most Ukrainian grain shipments went to wealthy Western countries. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was ready to return to the deal only when the Russia-related part of the agreement was fulfilled.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on July 19 that Moscow would regard all ships that go to Ukrainian ports across the Black Sea as carriers of military cargoes, starting from 12:00 am Moscow time on July 20, in a move related to the termination of the grain deal. It said the flag states of such ships will be viewed as participating in the Ukrainian conflict on the side of Kiev. The ministry also stated that some sea areas in the northwestern and southeastern international waters of the Black Sea were declared temporarily dangerous for navigation.

The secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Alexey Danilov, said that the country's leadership could propose to other countries and the UN that ships carrying Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea be escorted by warships for protection. Before that, Ukrainian ambassador to Turkey Vasily Bodnar had said that Kiev had proposed to send food shipments from Ukrainian ports through the territorial waters of Romania and Bulgaria.