Warning comes after Moscow says all ships sailing to Ukrainian ports could be seen as ‘involved’ in conflict after it pulled out of the UN-backed grain deal

Russia may attack civilian ships on the Black Sea and then put the blame on Ukrainian forces, a senior White House official has said, hours after Moscow warned it would consider all ships sailing in the area to Ukrainian ports potential military targets.

“The Russian military may expand their targeting of Ukrainian grain facilities to include attacks against civilian shipping,” national security council spokesperson Adam Hodge told AFP on Wednesday.

He said the allegation was based on newly declassified intelligence.

It came in the wake of a missile and drone attack by Russia against the port city of Odesa and after the Kremlin pulled out of an international deal allowing safe passage of massive Ukrainian grain exports across the Black Sea to world markets.

Moscow said its missiles targeted military objectives in Odesa but Hodge backed Ukrainian accusations that the attack destroyed “agricultural infrastructure and 60,000 tons of grain” lying ready for export.

According to the White House official, those kinds of attacks could now expand to civilian ships. And Russia is mounting an operation to make such attacks look as if they were carried out by Ukraine, he said.

Hodge cited Russia’s release of a video showing its forces detecting and destroying an “alleged Ukrainian sea mine” on Wednesday.

At the same time, “our information indicates that Russia laid additional sea mines in the approaches to Ukrainian ports. We believe that this is a coordinated effort to justify any attacks against civilian ships in the Black Sea and lay blame on Ukraine for these attacks.”

Earlier, the Russian defence ministry said all vessels sailing to Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea from midnight Moscow time (2100 GMT Wednesday) would be regarded as potential carriers of military cargo and their flag states “considered to be involved in the Ukrainian conflict on the side of the Kyiv regime”.

It did not say what it would do in such an instance.