Vance asked Ukraine to not strike Russian energy infrastructure: reports

The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that, following a request from U.S. Vice President JD Vance in late July, Ukraine agreed not to target Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) infrastructure and non-Russian vessels, as long as they were not under Ukrainian sanctions or carrying Russian oil or other cargo.

Ukraine’s presidency did not respond to a request for comment on the story.

A major Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk hit warships at a naval base and forced two major grain terminals to halt operations on Wednesday, according to Russian and Ukrainian officials as well as grain industry sources.

The Ukrainian attacks killed at least two people, including an eight-year-old child, regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said.

Describing the attack as having “strategic significance,” Ukraine’s SBU security service said Kyiv’s forces hit the Novorossiysk naval base with drones and missiles. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said two frigates, a large landing ship, a corvette and other vessels were hit.

Because Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter, the strikes on the grain terminals raised fears of a disruption to global supplies. Chicago wheat futures rose around 3% on Wednesday after the attack on Novorossiysk.

Russia’s agriculture ministry said it was working to redirect export flows to alternative routes. Russia’s main grain lobby group warned last month that Ukrainian attacks could shut down Black Sea grain exports, pushing up prices and causing hunger in Africa and the Middle East.

Novorossiysk Mayor Andrei Kravchenko said the port suspended its water supply and declared an emergency after the strikes on Wednesday. Four enterprises, more than two dozen residential buildings and some educational facilities were damaged, he said.

Russian strikes on ships in the Black Sea have drastically reduced grain shipments from Ukraine, a major global exporter. Shipments tumbled 76 per cent in the first two weeks of August from a year earlier, Ukraine’s agriculture ministry said on Wednesday.

Separately, Ukraine and Moldova agreed on Wednesday to a plan for routing Ukrainian grain shipments through Moldova by rail.

As Russia’s war on Ukraine has stretched into its fifth year, Moscow has intensified its strikes on Ukraine’s logistics and warehouse facilities in response to Kyiv’s attacks on Russian energy, port and logistic hubs.

Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Kyiv had handed proposals to U.S. negotiators for a plan to end the conflict, which started when Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine has repeatedly called for a ceasefire. Russia says it wants a settlement, but any solution must involve Ukraine fully ceding four regions Moscow claims as well as resolving the conflict’s “root causes.”

Novorossiysk also hosts oil export infrastructure, including for the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which is owned partly by U.S. oil majors Chevron and Exxon Mobil and carries Kazakh oil exports to market.