Ukraine, an agricultural powerhouse, was projected to provide around 12 percent of the world's exported wheat this year and more than 16 percent of its corn. But that was before Russia invaded. Since then, the war has disrupted farming and this year's harvest will be much reduced. But the most immediate problem is how to get last year's bumper crop out of the country.
Normally, almost all of Ukraine's grain exports go by sea. Today, Russia has occupied some of Ukraine's ports and destroyed infrastructure at others. Even those that remain intact and under government control are unusable, because of mines and Russian warships.
