Ukraine pounds grain terminals at Russia's port

MOSCOW: Ukraine hammered Russia's Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk in a massive overnight drone attack that put two major grain terminals out of action, according to Russian industry sources, raising fears in global markets of a disruption to supplies. Russia is the world's largest wheat exporter and most of those exports are shipped via its Black Sea ports like Novorossiysk. Russia's main grain lobby group ⁠warned last month that Ukrainian attacks could shut down grain exports via the Black Sea in the near future, pushing up prices and ⁠causing hunger in Africa and the Middle East.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram that Ukraine had hit Russia's Novorossiysk naval base with drones, missiles and unmanned boats. Russia moved some of its Black Sea Fleet vessels to Novorossiysk after Kyiv's forces attacked them repeatedly in Crimea, which Moscow seized and annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor ‌of Krasnodar region, where Novorossiysk is located, said a 'massive' wave of Ukrainian attacks had ​targeted the area and killed at ⁠least two people, including an 8-year-old child. Andrei Kravchenko, the mayor of Novorossiysk, said the Black Sea port's water supply ​had been suspended and an emergency situation had been declared following the attack, which damaged four unspecified enterprises, more than two dozen residential buildings and some educational facilities. Unverified video on social media showed images of a tower of flames and smoke rising from somewhere in Novorossiysk.
Amid ​fears of disruptions to wheat supplies on global markets, Chicago wheat futures rose around 3 per cent on Wednesday following reports of the Novorossiysk attack. Russian strikes on ships in the Black Sea have drastically reduced grain shipments from Ukraine, which is also a major grain exporter. Shipments tumbled 76 per cent in the first two weeks of August, versus the same period last year, Ukraine's agriculture ministry said.
Novorossiysk also hosts oil export infrastructure, including for the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which is ‌owned partly by US oil majors Chevron and Exxon Mobil and carries Kazakh oil exports to market. The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that, following ​a request from US Vice-President JD Vance in late July, Ukraine had agreed not to target CPC infrastructure and non-Russian vessels, as long as ​they were ‌not under ⁠Ukrainian sanctions or carrying Russian oil or other cargo. Ukraine's presidency did not respond to a request for comment on the story.
There was no indication that the CPC or tankers collecting oil from the pipeline had been struck during the overnight attacks. In Sevastopol in Crimea, more than three dozen drones ​were downed, the city's Russian-installed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said on Telegram.
Separately, a Russian attack caused a fire at ⁠a shopping mall in the ​southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram, posting pictures of a building ablaze. A Russian attack on Odesa, Ukraine's largest seaport, damaged infrastructure there, Serhiy Lysak, head of the city's military administration, said on Telegram, without giving details. Moscow has intensified its strikes on Ukraine's logistics and warehouse facilities in response to Kyiv's attacks on Russian energy, port and logistic hubs. Zelensky said on Tuesday that Kyiv had handed proposals to US negotiators for a ​plan to end the conflict, which started when Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine in February 2022. Ukraine has repeatedly called ​for a ceasefire after nearly 4½ years of fighting.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday threatened to seize ships belonging to European countries in retaliation for plans to sell off cargo seized from Russian 'shadow fleet' vessels. Several European companies have intercepted ships carrying Russian oil in contravention of European sanctions targeting the vital revenue source.
New sanctions passed last month permit EU members to sell the oil or any other cargo seized from the ships. Moscow has bristled at the moves, with Putin calling it 'piracy and banditry'. 'We will be forced to respond in kind,' the Kremlin chief said while overseeing naval drills in Russia's Far East. Moscow would act 'wherever we ourselves deem necessary and appropriate — anywhere,' he added. — Reuters/AFP