Russian drone attacks early on Wednesday damaged almost 40,000 tons of grains which were expected by countries in Africa and also in China and Israel, Ukrainian deputy prime minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said.
Russian state news agency RIA said overnight Russian strikes on the Ukrainian port of Izmail had hit port and grain infrastructure housing foreign mercenaries and military hardware, as well as a naval ship repair yard.
Attacking the ports
RIA cited Sergei Lebedev, a man it described as a coordinator of an underground group in the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv and who it said had sources in Izmail, Ukraine's main inland port across the Danube River from Romania.
It quoted Lebedev as saying that there had been eight separate Russian strikes on Izmail and that an oil terminal had been hit, a repair yard for Ukrainian naval cutters, a port building thought to house foreign forces, and a grain storage unit and elevator where it said foreign military hardware was stored.
Reuters was not able to verify Lebedev's assertions. A video released by the Ukrainian authorities showed firefighters on ladders battling a huge blaze in a multi-story building. Several other large buildings were in ruins, and grain spilled out of at least two wrecked silos.