Keir Starmer has accused Vladimir Putin of disrupting food supplies to Gaza after British intelligence suggested Russia had stepped up its attacks on Ukrainian ports.
Starmer said it was clear the Russian president was “willing to gamble on global food security” after several grain ships en route to developing countries were damaged by Russian strikes.
Military intelligence published by the UK government overnight concluded that Russia had increased its attacks on Ukrainian port infrastructure in the Black Sea.
Between 5 and 14 October at least four merchant vessels were struck by Russian munitions, according to the intelligence assessment. The strikes are believed to have delayed a vessel carrying vegetable oil destined for the World Food Programme in Palestine.
Ships loaded with grain destined for Egypt, two vessels carrying corn and WFP shipments bound for southern Africa were also affected, in some cases as collateral damage in strikes on port infrastructure.
“Russia’s indiscriminate strikes on ports in the Black Sea underscore that Putin is willing to gamble on global food security in his attempts to force Ukraine into submission,” the prime minister said in a statement.
“In doing so, he is harming millions of vulnerable people across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, to try and gain the upper hand in his barbaric war.”
Starmer and Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, were urged at a meeting with British-Palestinian families on Tuesday to set up evacuation and resettlement schemes and take tougher measures against Israel’s restrictions on aid entering Gaza.
Health officials in the north of the Gaza Strip have warned they are running out of supplies to treat patients amid a renewed three-week-old Israeli offensive there.
The Palestinian families called for a British personnel presence at border crossings in Gaza to ensure that inspections are carried out quickly and that aid flows unrestricted.
Israel says aid has increased since the US government warned in a leaked letter earlier this month that arms supplies would be restricted unless 300 aid trucks entered Gaza a day. The UN said in mid-October that aid shipments to the embattled territory were at their lowest level in months.
The Biden administration has complained of delays to US-funded aid at crossing points into Gaza and said the flow of supplies had dropped by more than 50% since last March when Israel promised to allow more deliveries.
Meanwhile, the UK government announced a £2.26bn loan to Ukraine this week paid for with the interest accumulated on sanctioned Russian sovereign assets. It forms part of a commitment the UK made at the G7 summit in June.
The Russian strikes on merchant vessels coincide with Ukraine’s harvest season. Ukraine’s food and grain exports, conducted largely via the Black Sea, had recovered roughly to prewar levels this year after Kyiv introduced a special shipping corridor along the western coast and forced the Russian surface fleet back with an audacious series of drone attacks.
Before the war Ukraine was the world’s seventh largest exporter of wheat, much of it bound for countries in the Middle East, the largest producer of sunflower oil and a supplier of other critical foodstuffs. But Russia has repeatedly tried to impose a maritime blockade to strangle Ukraine’s economy.
Starmer said Russia was “intensifying attacks on areas of Ukraine that support the global south with much-needed food”.
“Russia has no respect for the norms and laws that govern our international system,” the prime minister said. “Not only was their illegal invasion a blatant attack on the principles of the UN charter, but the way they have executed their war in Ukraine shows no respect for human life, or the consequences of their invasion across the world.”
The UK government has announced that a British factory will start producing artillery barrels for Ukraine from 2027 as part of a wider agreement between the UK and Germany.
The plant will be run by Germany’s Rheinmetall, using steel from the UK supporting 400 jobs, and will be the first time artillery barrels have been made in the UK for a decade.
