Coastal and shipping communities around Ukraine’s main port of Odessa were warned today by military officials of an increased risk from sea mines drifting ashore and at risk of washing ashore.

Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of using mines off the Ukrainian coast, which impedes safe navigation in the area.

Soviet-made mines are anchored, but in stormy conditions some of them could be swept away by the current.

“There is a high probability that sea mines will be detached from their anchors and washed ashore or drifted towards the coast,” wrote the spokesman of the Odesa military command, Serhii Brachuk, on the Telegram app.

“Since March last year, Russia has continued to use self-guided, inert sea mines, a smart weapon against Ukraine,” he said in a separate video.

Russia blocked the ports of Odessa — the main loading points for Ukrainian grain exports — after invading Ukraine last February.

The blockade was imposed on three Ukrainian Black Sea ports at the end of July under an agreement between Moscow and Kiev brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.

And from then until the end of January, Ukraine exported more than 17 million tons of grain and oilseeds through the safe transit corridor, the Ukrainian grain traders’ union UGA announced last week.

The union pointed out that in January 2023 agricultural exports “declined significantly due to deliberate delays in ship inspections by Russia”, which Moscow denies.