Ukraine Attacks Russian Grain Terminals In Novorossiysk, Stoking Wheat Fears

NOVOROSSIYSK, Russia —

Ukraine launched a large drone and missile attack on the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk overnight, damaging grain export terminals and striking several Russian warships, according to CNBC and BBC News. Russian officials said the attack killed three people, including an eight-year-old child, and wounded 24 others. Regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev said a man was also killed elsewhere in the region by drone debris, BBC News reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the operation used a mix of long-range drones and other weapons to hit Russian navy vessels in the bay, including the frigates Admiral Essen and Admiral Makarov, a large landing ship and a corvette. "It is entirely fair that Ukraine responds to Russia's war, and it is Russia that can and must end its war," Zelenskyy said, according to CNBC. He did not mention the grain terminals.

Two Russian grain trading companies said their facilities were damaged in the strikes, CNBC reported, citing multiple media accounts. Russia's Agriculture Ministry said Wednesday it was working to reroute cargo through ports on the Baltic and Caspian seas, as well as overland, according to BBC News.

A Blow to Russia's Grain Trade

Russia is the world's largest wheat exporter, and the attack adds to a run of strikes on both countries' Black Sea export facilities that has already pushed global wheat prices higher, CNBC reported. The consultancy SovEcon said Russia is on pace to export 3 million to 3.4 million metric tons of wheat this month, well short of the five-year August average of 5 million tons and possibly the lowest August total since the 2016-2017 season, according to CNBC.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine of trying to "provoke chaos" in food markets and said the strikes raise costs for countries in the "Global South and East," CNBC reported, citing Russia's TASS news agency. Ukraine has also struggled to move its own harvest: exports fell 23 percent in July, according to the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club, cited by BBC News. From 2016 to 2021, Asian and African countries received 92 percent of Ukraine's wheat exports, according to European Union data cited by CNBC.

A US Request Behind the Scenes

Ukraine had already stopped striking oil tankers that use Novorossiysk after US Vice President JD Vance asked Kyiv to halt those attacks, the Financial Times reported, according to The Straits Times. US officials told Reuters the request followed alarm in Washington that the strikes were disrupting oil markets and hurting American companies, including Chevron and Exxon Mobil, which operate in Kazakhstan and rely on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal at the port. Drone attacks knocked out roughly a fifth of the consortium's oil loadings in July, contributing to a 14 percent drop in Kazakhstan's oil production that month compared with June, according to sources cited by Reuters and reported by The Straits Times.