Russia is stepping up attacks on Ukraine’s crop-processing facilities, further straining an industry vital to the war-battered economy and global food supplies.

The country’s food giant Kernel Holding SA halted operations at all of its oilseed crushing plants after massive Russian drone attacks damaged its equipment and storage tanks, the company said Wednesday.

“Oilseed crushing is a continuous technological process with an elevated fire risk,” the company said. “A strike on operating equipment poses a direct risk of a large-scale fire and a threat to employees’ lives.”

Kernel said it also interrupted all oilseed purchases, shipping existing product inventories from warehouses in order to meet commitments to farmers and other partners.

Those attacks mark an escalation in Russia’s efforts to destabilize Kyiv by hitting a top source of export revenue, while also threatening food security. Ukraine has boosted production of value-added agricultural products in recent years in a bid to offset the impact of Moscow’s invasion on crop shipments.

A soybean processing plant was damaged in a strike on Sunday, as the assets of other big agricultural companies were targeted this month. Now the Kremlin is preparing to hit more silos, dairy plants and sunflower oil factories, along with meat and poultry producers, according to a person at Ukraine’s military intelligence, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.

Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotskyi said he was coordinating with the defense ministry to counter the attacks, although 100% protection wasn’t possible. At the same time, the country’s agricultural output is “inherently decentralized and diversified,” he said, adding that there were “no grounds to anticipate a critical food shortage” in Ukraine.

Both nations have targeted grain shipping infrastructure in the Black Sea, a region that accounts for more than a quarter of global wheat shipments and two-thirds of sunflower oil exports. That’s reduced the flow of crops to global markets, and forced both Russia and Ukraine to seek alternative shipping routes.

Ukraine’s agricultural sector has long been a key source of budget revenue, but its importance has grown since Russia occupied parts of steel-producing eastern Donetsk. Grains, oilseeds and other agricultural products now account for more than half of Ukraine’s export revenue, vital for financing Kyiv’s war effort.

With progress stalling on the frontline, Moscow has also stepped up attacks on Ukrainian energy and transport infrastructure. The number of civilians killed in September was the highest since the full-scale invasion started four and a half years earlier, the United Nations said in its report last month.

Russian attacks will probably make the Ukrainian economy contract this year for the first time since 2022, the central bank said last week. It estimates the farm sector could lose $4.6 billion in export revenue in the second half of 2026.

Ukraine has responded with strikes on Russian refineries deep inside the country, forcing Moscow to cut fuel exports and restrict gasoline sales.

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(With assistance from Olesia Safronova.)

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