Russia halts Black Sea grain deal, blames Ukraine for attacks on Crimea Bridge

KERCH, Crimea (Reuters) - Russia said on Monday that it had halted participation in a landmark UN-brokered deal which allowed Ukrainian grain to be exported through the Black Sea just hours after Moscow said Ukraine had attacked the Crimean Bridge.

Two people were killed and their daughter was wounded in what Russia cast as a terrorist attack on a major artery for Russian troops fighting in Ukraine and a prestige project personally opened by President Vladimir Putin.

Blasts were reported before dawn on the 19-km (12-mile) road and rail bridge linking Russia to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The Kremlin said the halting of the agreement, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to combat a global food crisis worsened by Russia's invasion of its neighbour, had nothing to do with the bridge attack.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the parts of the Black Sea grain deal package relating to Russia were not fulfilled and therefore it was ceasing effect.

The deal, he said, had ceased to be valid today and was halted. Russia, he said, would return to the deal once the conditions relating to Russia were fulfilled.

The deal was due to expire on Monday.

The Ukrainian military suggested the attack could be some kind of provocation by Russia itself but Ukrainian media cited unidentified sources as saying that Ukraine's Security Service was behind the incident.