Russia Attacks Main Ukrainian Port for Exports, President Zelensky: Moscow Wage Battle for Global Catastrophe

JAKARTA - Russia attacked Ukraine's main inland port across the Danube River on Wednesday, sending global food prices soaring, as Moscow's increased use of force to prevent Ukraine from exporting grain.

The drone strikes destroyed buildings in the Port of Izmail, stopping ships as they prepared to arrive there to load Ukraine with grain, in defiance of a de-facto blockade that Russia reimposed in mid-July.

"Moscow is waging a battle for a global catastrophe," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address late at night.

"In their madness, they want world food markets to collapse, they want a price crunch, they want supply disruptions," he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov said the Russian strikes damaged nearly 40,000 tons of grain that were going to countries in Africa, China China and Israel.

In his Facebook post, Kubrakov said the infrastructure of the Danube port had been "destroyed".

"Ukrainian grain is indispensable to the world and cannot be replaced by any other country in the coming years," he wrote.

"Izmail port suffered the most damage, including the terminal and infrastructure of the Danube Shipping Company," he said.

Meanwhile, Russia's state news agency RIA said the port and grain infrastructure affected were housing foreign mercenaries and military hardware. Naval ship repair sites were also targeted, he said.

Video released by Ukrainian authorities shows firefighters using a ladder, battling the flames high in a building covered in broken windows. Several other large buildings were destroyed, and grain spilled from at least two damaged warehouses.

There were no reports of casualties, wrote the Governor of the Odesa Region By Kiper in a post on the Telegram messaging application.

Meanwhile, commercial ship tracking data shows dozens of international ships stopping and anchoring at the mouth of the Danube, many of them registered as arriving in Izmail in an attempt to break through the Russian blockade.

The port, across the river from NATO member Romania, is a key alternative route from Ukraine for grain exports, since a Russian blockade halted traffic at Ukraine's Black Sea port in mid-July.

Two industry sources told Reuters operations at the port were suspended. Port authority head Yuriy Lytvyn said on Facebook repair work had started and port infrastructure was continuing to operate.

Separately, grain prices in Chicago rose nearly 5 percent on supply concerns after the attack, although they fell on Wednesday on strong Russian exports and signs Moscow may be open to reviving a Black Sea corridor deal.

It is known, Ukraine is one of the largest wheat exporters in the world. Russia has been attacking its agricultural and port infrastructure for more than two weeks after refusing to extend the Black Sea accord, which lifted a wartime blockade of Ukraine's ports last year.

Ukrainian officials say Moscow has attacked 26 port facilities, five civilian ships and 180,000 tons of grain in the nine days of attacks since quitting the grain deal.

Kyiv said the aim of the attack was to reimpose Russia's blockade, influencing shippers and insurers that Ukrainian ports were not safe to resume exports.

Ukraine's Danube River ports such as Izmail accounted for about a quarter of grain exports before Russia withdrew from the Black Sea deal, and have since become a major exit route, with grain barged to the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta for onward shipment.

Kyiv's aim is for international ships to go straight to Danube ports and load directly, while Moscow has said it will treat ships bound for Ukrainian ports as potential military targets.