KYIV - Russian drone and missile attacks have damaged 321 Ukrainian port infrastructure facilities since July 2023, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Nov 23.

       Twenty merchant ships belonging to other countries were also damaged by Russian strikes, he added.

       "Overall, Ukrainian food exports provide food for 400 million people in 100 countries around the world," Mr Zelensky said.

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

       Moscow has repeatedly denied that it attacks civilian targets.

       Ukraine is a major global wheat and corn grower and before the Russian invasion it exported about six million tonnes of grain a month via the Black Sea.

       When Russia launched its invasion in February 2022, it blockaded Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. Shipments were resumed in July 2022 under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal mediated by the United Nations and Turkey.

       But a year later Russia exited the agreement.

       Since then, Ukraine has exported grain and other food products using its own corridor, which passes through the territorial waters of Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey.

       Ukraine's grain exports in the 2024/25 July-June season totalled almost 16 million metric tonnes by the middle of November, up from about 11 million tonnes in the same period a year ago, data from traders and the government showed.

       Ukraine's grain exports in the 2023/24 marketing season rose to about 51 million tonnes from 49.2 million tonnes the previous year. REUTERS