DIKSIA.COM - UKRAINE, The Russian army is becoming increasingly violent in Ukraine.

On Wednesday (07/19/2023) local time, Russia launched a drone and missile attack on Odessa.

The attack damaged key port infrastructure in southern Ukraine, including grain and oil terminals, and injured at least 12 people.

Ukraine’s Agriculture Ministry said the attack crippled most grain export facilities in Odessa and Chornomorsk and destroyed 60,000 tons of wheat.

The attack came days after President Vladimir Putin withdrew Russia from its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a wartime treaty that allowed Ukrainian exports to reach many countries.

The attack also followed Putin’s promise to retaliate against Kiev for Monday’s attack on the Kerch Bridge, a key link between Russia and the Crimean peninsula that the Kremlin illegally annexed in 2014.

The Ministry of Agriculture, citing experts, estimates that it will take a year to restore the damaged facilities.

The shredded wheat should have been loaded onto ships and sent through the grain corridor two months ago, the statement said.

“If we cannot export food, the population of the poorest countries will be on the brink of survival!” Ukraine’s Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi told the Associated Press on Wednesday (07/19/2023).

“The price of wheat will increase and not all countries will be able to buy agricultural products, which means that food prices for flour, grain and meat will increase significantly,” Solskyi said.

Wheat prices rose more than 2.5 percent on Tuesday and more than 3 percent on Wednesday on Russia’s attack on Odessa, a key wheat export hub, pointing to concerns in global markets after Moscow’s exit from the grain deal and threatening to exacerbate hunger in some parts of the world.

However, Wednesday’s trading price of $6.91 a bushel is still more than 85% down from last year’s high.

Video from a warehouse elsewhere in Odessa showed firefighters putting out the fire as thick black smoke continued to rise from the blast.