Russia bombarded Ukrainian food export facilities for the fourth day in succession on Friday and exercised detention in the Black Sea, escalating what Western officials say is an attempt to avoid sanctions by creating a worldwide food catastrophe.
The attacks on Ukraine’s grain, a vital component of the global food chain, came after Kyiv vowed to resist Russia’s naval blockade of its export ports following Moscow’s withdrawal from a UN-brokered safe maritime passage accord this week.
The UN warned that millions of people in poor countries around the world were at greater risk of hunger and starvation from the knock-on effect of food prices.
“Some will go hungry, some will starve, and many may die as a result of these decisions,” UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told the Security Council.
In Ukraine, local governor Oleh Kiper said the grain terminals of an agricultural enterprise in the Odesa region were hit by air, with 100 tonnes of peas and 20 tonnes of barley destroyed.
Photographs released by the emergencies ministry showed a fire burning among crumpled metal buildings that appeared to be storehouses. Two people were injured, Kiper said, while officials reported seven dead in Russian air strikes elsewhere in Ukraine.
Moscow has described the attacks as revenge for a Ukrainian strike on a Russian-built bridge to Crimea, the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula seized by Moscow in 2014. It accuses Ukraine of using the sea corridor to launch “terrorist attacks.”
Russia said its Black Sea fleet had practiced firing rockets at “floating targets,” and it would deem all ships heading for Ukrainian waters to be potentially carrying arms. Kyiv responded with a similar warning about ships headed to Russia.
The attacks on grain export infrastructure and anxiety over shipping drove prices of benchmark Chicago wheat futures towards their biggest weekly gain since the February 2022 invasion.
The UN says the deal has helped the poorest by lowering food prices by more than 23% globally since March last year.
Russia says not enough Ukrainian grain has reached poor countries and that it is now negotiating directly with those most in need. It says it will not re-enter the deal without better terms for its own food and fertiliser sales.
Western leaders accuse Moscow of seeking to loosen sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine, which already exempt exports of Russian food. Russian grain has moved freely through the Black Sea to markets throughout the conflict.
