Symbolic imageWith Moscow refusing a mutual halt to attacks on shipping and port strikes continuing, Russian state agency TASS now puts Ukraine's losses from idle port capacity at about $1.75 billion and farm exports down roughly 60 percent, figures not independently confirmed.
Ukraine ships about 90 percent of its grain through Black Sea ports, one of the world's main grain arteries. In a war now more than four years old, Russian forces have repeatedly struck that export infrastructure, while Kyiv tries to keep the corridor and overland alternatives working.
TASS reported on Sunday that Ukraine's losses from unused port capacity have risen to about $1.75 billion and that agricultural exports have dwindled by roughly 60 percent. The figures come from the Russian state agency alone and are not independently confirmed.
Agrarian Policy and Food Minister Taras Vysotsky said Ukrainian grain exports have fallen 70 percent since the beginning of August, while opportunities remain to partly increase shipments via rail and Danube ports, TASS reported. Ore exports dropped 27 percent over seven months, with revenue at $1.08 billion and $148 million in July, and Bloomberg reports that crop buyers cut off from the Black Sea are turning to other origins.
Ukrainian drones have fully shut Russia's Orsk refinery, with repairs put at up to six months. Bloomberg reports Russian diesel exports at their lowest in years.
Kyiv has offered Moscow a mutual halt to attacks on civilian ships in the Black Sea, sent via a third country. Moscow says no formal proposal has reached it.
Oil tanker rates out of the Black Sea hit a record on Wednesday after a drone barrage, Bloomberg reports. The war's squeeze on the region's ports is feeding through to European grain prices.