Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised on Sunday to respond against Russian forces after Moscow fired missiles at the ancient port of Odesa, killing one person and damaging an Orthodox cathedral. He said, “Missiles against peaceful cities, against residential buildings, a cathedral. There will definitely be a retaliation against Russian terrorists for Odesa. They will feel this retaliation.”

We cannot allow people around the world to get used to terrorist attacks. The target of all these missiles is not just cities, villages or people. Their target is humanity and the foundations of our entire European culture. Last night, a Russian missile – it was an X-22, an… pic.twitter.com/RItCBNNZE9

— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 23, 2023

Russia Cancels Grain Deal with Ukraine

A ground-breaking peacetime agreement that permitted grain to travel from Ukraine to regions in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia where famine is a growing danger and high food prices have forced more people into poverty was suspended by Russia earlier last week.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative will be put on hold, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, until conditions are satisfied for supplying the rest of the globe with Russian grain and fertiliser. He said that the decision was not influenced by a Monday attack on a bridge that connects the Crimean Peninsula to Russia.

Russian agricultural exports have been limited by transportation and insurance constraints, but since last year, the country has transported record amounts of wheat.

As a result of Russia’s invasion of its neighbour, which exacerbated a worldwide food crisis, the U.N. and Turkey reached an agreement last summer to let food exports from the Black Sea region. This agreement has now come to an end with the suspension. The programme is credited with aiding in the decrease of wheat, vegetable oil, and other global food commodity prices that were skyrocketing.

Russia and Ukraine are both significant global producers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil, and other staple foods for developing countries.

The price of wheat has risen in the international markets after India announced a ban on the export of wheat and due to the reduced production prospects in Ukraine following the Russian invasion, the UN food agency has said.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Price Index averaged 157.4 points in May 2022, down 0.6 per cent from April.

The index, which keeps a track of monthly changes in the international prices of a basket of commonly-traded food commodities, however, remained 22.8 per cent higher than in May 2021.

The FAO Cereal Price Index averaged 173.4 points in May, up 3.7 points (2.2 per cent) from April and as much as 39.7 points (29.7 per cent) above its May 2021 value.

“International wheat prices rose for a fourth consecutive month, up 5.6 per cent in May, to average 56.2 per cent above their value last year and only 11 per cent below the record high reached in March 2008,” it said on Friday.

“The steep increase in wheat prices was in response to an export ban announced by India amidst concerns over crop conditions in several leading exporting countries, as well as reduced production prospects in Ukraine because of the war,” it said.

In contrast to this, the international coarse grain prices reduced by 2.1 per cent in May but remained 18.1 per cent above their value a year ago.

Slightly improved crop conditions in the United States of America, seasonal supplies in Argentina and the imminent start of Brazil’s main maize harvest led maize prices to decline by 3.0 per cent, however, they remained 12.9 per cent above their level of May 2021, it said.