Aug 13 (Reuters) – Russia struck Ukraine’s largest grain export port on the Danube on Thursday, causing damage and starting a fire, authorities said, after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Ukraine needed more U.S. air defence missiles to get through winter.
The port of Izmail, near the Romanian border in Ukraine’s southern region of Odesa, handles exports of grain and other commodities. The Izmail regional state administration said on Telegram the overnight strikes had damaged port infrastructure and taken out power in the southeast of the city.
Romania, a NATO and European Union member, scrambled two fighter jets on Thursday, its defence ministry said on X, when an ‘aerial target’ spent about two minutes in Romanian airspace before leaving for Ukraine, where explosions were heard.
The attack on Izmail and record-low Danube water levels could complicate Ukraine’s plans to use the river to ship grain to Europe. A Russian naval blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports sent grain exports tumbling 76% year-on-year so far in August, Valeriy Tkachev, deputy head of state railway Ukrzaliznytsia’s commercial department, said.
Ukraine is among the world’s largest producers of wheat, corn and sunflower seeds and around 90% of its exports of such crops go through the Black Sea.
It supplies around 6% of the world’s wheat and around 11% of its corn, and the blockade has raised fears of shortages in African and Middle Eastern nations that rely on Ukrainian exports. Russian officials have also warned that Ukraine’s strikes on its grain export facilities and ships were pushing up global food prices.
Chicago wheat futures were largely flat on Thursday after a sharp rise in the previous session, when Ukraine attacked Novorossiysk, a major grain shipment hub in Russia’s part of the Black Sea, raising concerns about disruption to exports.
On Thursday, Ukraine’s military said it struck an oil refinery and petrochemical complex in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, about 1,300 km (800 miles) from the Ukrainian border, causing a fire – the latest in a months-long campaign of attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure.
UKRAINE ASKS FOR MORE AIR DEFENCES
Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that Kyiv had handed proposals to U.S. negotiators for a plan to end the conflict, which started when Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine in February 2022. But there have been no signs so far of a resumption of peace talks, which unravelled earlier this year.
Ukraine has repeatedly called for a ceasefire. Russia says it wants a settlement, but it must involve Ukraine fully ceding four regions Moscow claims – including land Russia does not yet control – something that Kyiv has refused to consider.
Late on Wednesday, Zelenskiy told CNN that Ukraine needs at least 5% of the current U.S. stockpile of Patriot interceptor missiles to ward off surging Russian ballistic missile attacks.
Kyiv has been seeking more PAC-3s, the newest type of Patriot missile capable of downing Russian ballistic missiles. Deliveries of Patriot missiles to Ukraine dwindled after the war on Iran diverted supplies.
In the interview, Zelenskiy said a 10% share of the current U.S. stockpile of Patriots would be enough to stop all Russian ballistic missile attacks.
“Sell us 5%, we will go through the winter and save people’s lives. If they can sell us 10%, we will destroy all the Russians’ ballistic missiles. I have 1%,” he told CNN.
Because of their speed and steep trajectory, ballistic missiles are much harder to intercept than drones and cruise missiles.
In July, Russia fired over 450 various missiles at Ukraine, more than half of them ballistic, Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian air force said on Facebook.
He also said the air force would stop announcing daily figures on downed and suppressed Russian ballistic missiles, and would present them monthly. Ihnat said that daily updates saying no ballistic missiles had been shot down, when Ukraine lacks air defence interceptors, were only providing an opportunity for Russians to celebrate.
(Reporting by Jekaterīna Golubkova in Tokyo and Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Jacqueline Wong, Clarence Fernandez, William Maclean, Philippa Fletcher)
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