Ukraine Working to Restart Grain Exports

Ukraine on Sunday resumed efforts to restart grain exports through Black Sea ports under a deal aimed at alleviating global food shortages, but warned that deliveries would suffer if a Russian missile attack on Odesa was a sign of more to come.

President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Saturday's attack as a "barbarism" that showed Moscow could not be trusted to implement the agreement reached the day before, brokered by Turkey and the United Nations. The Ukrainian military said Russian missiles did not hit the port's grain storage area or cause significant damage, public broadcaster Suspilne reported. Kiev said preparations were underway to resume grain shipments. "We are continuing technical preparations for the resumption of exports of agricultural products through our ports," Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said in a Facebook (NASDAQ:META) post. According to the Ukrainian military, two Kalibr missiles fired from Russian warships hit the area of a pumping station in the port and two others were shot down by air defense forces. Russia said on Sunday it had hit a Ukrainian warship and an arms depot in Odesa with high-precision missiles. Friday's deal between Moscow and Kiev was hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough that would help curb the rise in global food prices by bringing Ukraine's grain shipments back to their pre-war level of 5 million tons per month. But Zelensky's economic adviser warned that Sunday's strike in Odessa signaled that this goal might not be achieved. "Yesterday's strike shows that this is definitely not going to work," Oleh Ustenko told Ukrainian television. Ukraine could export 60 million tons of grain in the next nine months, but that could take up to 24 months if port operations are disrupted, Ustenko said.