KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine has proposed an agreement under which it and Russia would both stop attacking civilian vessels in the Black Sea, an effort to reopen a grain corridor as escalating strikes push global food prices to their highest levels since early 2023, Reuters reported.
The offer follows weeks of attacks on ports, terminals and merchant ships that have squeezed exports from two of the world's largest grain suppliers. Ukraine struck warships and grain export terminals at the Russian port of Novorossiysk this week; regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev said three people were killed, including an 8-year-old, and 24 were injured, CNBC reported. Russia hit Ukraine's largest Danube grain shipment port the following night, causing damage and setting off a fire, France 24 reported.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine of trying to provoke chaos in the global food market, saying the strikes worsen grain and fertilizer shortages and raise costs for countries in the Global South, according to the TASS news agency.
The market effects are already visible. The agricultural consultancy SovEcon said Russia appears on track to export 3 million to 3.4 million metric tons of wheat this month, well under the five-year August average of 5 million tons and potentially the weakest August since the 2016-17 season, CNBC reported. Russia is the world's largest wheat exporter. International wheat prices have reached a two-year high, roughly 25% above January levels, according to Bloomberg and Farm Policy News.
Ukraine's own capacity has contracted sharply. The country's Agriculture Ministry now expects to export about 29.6 million metric tons of agricultural products in the 2026-27 marketing year, down 54% from an earlier forecast of 64.4 million tons, with wheat exports projected to fall 53%. Kyiv has reported nearly 70 strikes on port facilities and dozens of attacks on ships since last month. Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotskyi told Reuters that alternative export routes will not reach full capacity until the end of August and would handle only about half the volume normally moved through Black Sea ports.
The pressure compounds other shocks to the food system. The throttling of the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran war has disrupted fertilizer flows, and heat waves have damaged crops across the Northern Hemisphere, Bloomberg reported.
The United Nations said more civilians were killed or wounded in Ukraine in July than in any month since Russia's full-scale invasion began, with at least 437 deaths and more than 2,600 injuries.