Russia wants ships in the Black Sea to be inspected to make sure they are not being used to carry weapons, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin told a briefing on Friday.

Speaking about the statement of the Russian Ministry of Defense that Moscow will consider all ships that go to Ukrainian ports along the Black Sea as carriers of military cargo, Vershinin said: „What is meant there is that we must make sure of this, we must check if a ship is carrying something bad.“