Finance
On Sunday, Russian missiles pounded the southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv, killing the owner of a major grain exporter, while a drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea naval base in Sevastopol was launched from within the city in a “terrorist attack,” according to a Russian lawmaker.
Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram that Oleksiy Vadatursky, founder and owner of agriculture company Nibulon, and his wife were murdered in their home.
Nibulon is headquartered in Mykolaiv, a strategically important city bordering the mostly Russian-occupied Kherson region, and specializes in the production and export of wheat, barley, and corn, as well as having its own fleet and shipyard.
Mykolaiv’s Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych described the more than 12 missile strikes as “probably the most powerful on the city in five months of war, hitting homes and schools, with at least three others wounded. On Sunday evening he reported that strikes had resumed, but no information on casualties or damage was available.
In Russian-occupied Sevastopol, five Russian navy staff members were injured by an explosion after a presumed drone flew into the courtyard of Russia’s Black Sea fleet , the Crimean port city’s governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev told Russian media.
He blamed the attack on Ukraine, saying it had decided to “spoil Navy Day for us.”
But Olga Kovitidi, a member of Russia’s upper house of parliament, told the Russian RIA news agency that the attack was “undoubtedly carried out not from outside, but from the territory of Sevastopol.”
“Urgent search operations are being conducted in the city to track down the organisers of this terrorist act. They will be found by the evening,” Kovitidi was quoted as saying.
GRAIN TYCOON ‘GREAT LOSS’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called grain tycoon Vadatursky’s death “a great loss for all of Ukraine.” Zelenskyy went on to say that the businessman, who Forbes estimates has a net worth of $430 million in 2021, has been building a modern grain market with a network of transhipment terminals and elevators.
“It is these people, these companies, precisely the south of Ukraine, which has guaranteed the world’s food security,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address. “This was always so. And it will be so once again.”
He added that Ukraine’s social and industrial potential, “our people, our capabilities, are surely more powerful than any Russian missiles or shells.”
On February 24, Putin sent tens of thousands of troops across the border, sparking a conflict that has killed thousands, uprooted millions, and severely strained relations between Russia and the West.
The largest conflict in Europe since World War II has also sparked an energy and food crisis, which is causing the global economy to tremble. Ukraine and Russia are both major grain suppliers.
On February 24, Putin sent tens of thousands of troops across the border, sparking a conflict that has killed thousands, uprooted millions, and severely strained relations between Russia and the West.
The largest conflict in Europe since World War II has also sparked an energy and food crisis, which is causing the global economy to tremble. Ukraine and Russia are both major grain suppliers.
Source:IE
