VIENNA, Oct. 15 -- Russia told a security forum in Vienna on Wednesday that 214 of the 228 attacks on commercial ships in the Azov and Black seas since its military operation began came this year, and that 28 crew members died.

Yulia Zhdanova, who heads the Russian delegation to the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation, said Kiev tried between June and August, "with the direct support of Western states," to block economic activity in the region, following what she called "the tactic of total destruction of vessels carrying oil, petroleum products, and food." The account comes from her statement as TASS reported it.

Zhdanova listed seven major attacks this year on tankers carrying Kazakh oil through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, and sa...