KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia resumed its blockade of Ukrainian ports on Sunday, cutting off urgently needed grain exports to hungry parts of the world in what US President Joe Biden called a “really outrageous” act.

Biden warned that global hunger could increase because of Russia’s suspension of a UN-brokered deal to allow safe passage of ships carrying grain from Ukraine, one of the world’s breadbaskets.

“It’s really outrageous,” Biden said Saturday in Wilmington, Delaware. “There’s no merit to what they’re doing. The UN negotiated that deal and that should be the end of it.”

Biden spoke hours after Russia announced it would immediately halt participation in the grain deal, alleging that Ukraine staged a drone attack Saturday against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet off the coast of occupied Crimea. Ukraine has denied the attack, saying that Russia mishandled its own weapons.

Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry reported Sunday that 218 ships involved in grain exports have been blocked — 22 loaded and stuck at ports, 95 loaded and departed from ports, and 101 awaiting inspections.

One of the blocked ships, carrying 40,000 tons of grain bound for Ethiopia under a UN aid programme, could not leave Ukraine on Sunday as a result of Russia’s “blockage of the grain corridor”, Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s minister of infrastructure, said on Twitter. He didn’t specify which Ukrainian port the ship, the Ikraia Angel, was stuck in.

The grain initiative — an example of rare wartime cooperation between Ukraine and Russia — has allowed more than nine million tons of grain in 397 ships to safely leave Ukrainian ports since it was signed in July. UN chief António Guterres had urged Russia and Ukraine on Friday to renew the deal when it expires November 19. The grain agreement has brought down global food prices about 15 per cent from their peak in March, according to the UN.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskky expressed outrage at Russia’s decision.