Russia will continue purposefully destroying Ukrainian port infrastructure, vice-president for economics education at Kyiv School of Economics Oleg Nivevsky said.
He said that as soon as the discussions on humanitarian convoys had become real, Russia started to destroy the port infrastructure. On June 5, they hit Nika-Tera with missile. It is one of the largest grain terminals in Mykolaiv.
“I think the number of missile strikes will grow. Previously, Russians did not hit the ports, as they planed to occupy and control them. Now it is unreal, so they will likely to try to destroy them”, – O. Nivevsky supposes.
He added that Ukraine would have large stocks of old and new-crop grains.
“We will have to export about 50 mln tonnes of grain. It is unreal to do this by rail. So, the domestic prices will be pressured, and many grain and oilseed agribusinesses can go bankrupt”, – he added.
At the same time, O. Nivevsky reminded that small producers – households and farms – accounted for more than 50% of pre-war production of agricultural crops. They cover about 21 mln ha of agricultural lands out of total 42.7 mln ha in Ukraine.
“Small producers are barely orient on export crops, so they do not really depend on ports. I expect for larger role of small farmers in food provision for Ukraine”, – he concluded.
