(TWN)-Russia attacks Ukraine's Danube port, increasing world grain prices.

In the early hours of Wednesday, Russia targeted Ukraine's grain terminals, including an inland port across the Danube River from Romania, sending global food prices skyrocketing as Moscow escalates its use of force to reimpose an embargo on Ukrainian exports.

According to Ukraine's defense ministry, a grain silo at the Danube port of Izmail in the Odesa area was damaged: "Ukrainian grain has the potential to feed millions of people worldwide," the ministry tweeted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

There were no reports of casualties, Odesa region governor Oleh Kiper wrote in a post on the Telegram messaging app. Kiper posted several photos showing firefighting crews trying to put out a fire in a blighted high-rise building next to a river.

"Unfortunately, there are damages," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram.

"The most significant ones are in the south of the country. Russian terrorists have once again attacked ports, grain, global food security."

An industrial source stated Izmail was the main focus of the attack, calling the damage "serious."

The Ukrainian prosecutor's office posted images of a war crimes investigator standing outside a wrecked structure, as well as at least two broken silos with wheat spilling out.

Since Russia reimposed its de facto blockade on Ukraine's Black Sea ports in mid-July, the port across the Danube from NATO member Romania has served as the principal alternative route out of Ukraine for grain shipments.

Following Wednesday's attack, Chicago wheat prices rose 4%, as traders were once again concerned about a blow to global supply from pushing Ukraine, one of the world's top food producers, off the market.

Since refusing to prolong an agreement that ended its wartime blockade of Ukrainian ports last year, Russia has mercilessly attacked Ukrainian agricultural and port infrastructure for more than two weeks. Moscow has sought improved terms for its own food and fertilizer exports, which are already free from international financial penalties.

"The enemy... is attempting to destroy Ukrainian grain infrastructure by attacking industrial and port infrastructure." Unfortunately, there have been hits, the silo has been damaged, and fires have broken out at the location." In a video message, Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Volunteer Army South, a branch of Ukraine's armed forces, said.

"Russia is attempting to exclude Ukraine from the future grain agreement and, more importantly, to strategically remove our country from the global food market," he stated.

Before Russia withdrew out of the Black Sea arrangement, Ukraine's Danube river ports accounted for almost a quarter of grain exports and have now become the major way out, with grain loaded onto barges and sent to Romania's Black Sea port of Constanta for transportation elsewhere.

On Sunday, Ukrainian media claimed that numerous foreign cargo ships had landed straight into Izmail from the Black Sea for the first time since the grain deal expired, potentially breaching Russia's freshly reinstated embargo.

As a result of Russia's decision to quit the accord mediated by the UN and Turkey, the UN has warned of a potential food catastrophe and starvation in the world's poorest countries.

Moscow has stated that ships bound for Ukrainian ports will be considered possible military targets. Kyiv has stated that it hopes ships would return nonetheless, although they have yet to do so.

According to estimates, Ukraine's grain exports for July were 40% lower than in June due to the deal's breakdown midway through the month.

Russian drones had already hit Izmail in late July, devastating grain stockpiles.

According to Ukrainian officials, Moscow has targeted 26 port facilities, five civilian boats, and 180,000 tonnes of grain in nine days of attacks since pulling out of the grain deal. According to Moscow, such assaults are retaliation for a Ukrainian strike on a bridge used by Russia to feed its occupying force in southern Ukraine.

Russia also conducted a drone strike on Kyiv and the surrounding region overnight, according to Ukraine's Air Force. Although air defense shot down 23 drones, debris from the destroyed drones damaged multiple structures in the capital and surrounding area.

So yet, no fatalities have been recorded.