Russia on Saturday suspended participation in a UN-brokered Black Sea grain deal after what it said was a major Ukrainian drone attack on its fleet in Crimea, dealing a blow to attempts to ease the global food crisis, Report informs via Reuters.
US President Joe Biden denounced the move as "purely outrageous" and said it would increase starvation.
Russia's defence ministry said Ukraine attacked the Black Sea Fleet near Sevastopol on the annexed Crimean peninsula with 16 drones early on Saturday, and that British navy "specialists" had helped coordinate the "terrorist" attack.
The suspension will cut Ukrainian grain exports from its crucial Black Sea ports.
"There's no merit to what they're doing. The UN negotiated that deal and that should be the end of it," Biden told reporters in his home state of Delaware.
The deal allows shipments of grain from Ukraine, one of the world's largest exporters, that the Russian invasion had halted.
Russia told UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in a letter, seen by Reuters, that it was suspending the deal for an "indefinite term" because it could not "guarantee safety of civilian ships" travelling under the pact.
Russia has also asked the UN Security Council to meet on Monday on the attack, Russia's Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy wrote on Twitter.
The U.N. coordinator for the Istanbul-based Black Sea grain deal coordination centre - made up of UN, Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish officials - said five outbound and four inbound vessels had safely passed through the humanitarian corridor.