Russia damaged over 300 port facilities, 20 foreign vessels in the past year, Zelensky says

Russia has damaged 321 port infrastructure facilities, as well as 20 foreign merchant vessels since July 2023, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Nov. 23 at the International Conference on Food Security in Kyiv.

Traveling along the Black Sea route, ships are regularly at risk of being attacked by Russia. Since the beginning of the all-out war, mines have also been drifting along the trade route, which also poses a risk to maritime transport.

As a major grain producer, Ukraine exports about 6 million tons of grain per month through ports along the Black Sea.

Following an initial blockade at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Russia unilaterally terminated the Black Sea grain deal last year forcing Kyiv to set up a new export route in the Black Sea.

Initially envisioned as a humanitarian corridor to allow the departure of ships stranded there since the start of the full-scale war, it has since grown into a full-blown trade route.

Last month, Russian forces struck a foreign civilian ships in Odesa, killing a 60 year-old Ukrainian port employee and injuring five foreign nationals.

“By attacking civilian vessels, Russia tries to weaken Ukraine’s economy and put millions around the world at risk of hunger,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on social media following the attack in October.

Speaking at the Grain from Ukraine conference during a program that included journalists from 10 different African countries, Zelensky said that the country’s “food exports provide food for 400 million people in 100 countries around the world.”

“Food prices in Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, and other countries in Africa directly depend on whether farmers and agricultural companies in Ukraine can operate normally,” Zelensky added.

Attempting to strengthen ties with African nations amid Russia’s continued influence in the region, Zelensky said that seven of the ten embassies that the country announced it was opening in African nations in December 2022 have already been opened, with an additional three opening in the near future.