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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces launched dozens of missiles and rockets at the southern city of Mykolaiv over the weekend, killing agriculture tycoon Oleksiy Vadaturskyi.
Vadaturskyi owns Nibulon, which exported more than 5.6 million tonnes of wheat, barley, corn and other agricultural products to 38 countries last year.
His wife, Raisa, also died in the bombardment, Zelenskyy said.
“It is exactly these people, these companies, our Ukrainian south that have ensured global food security. It has always been so. And it always will be,” Zelenskyy said on Sunday.
“Russian terrorists should not even hope that they can destroy the social and industrial potential of Ukraine and walk through the ruins.”
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Nibulon confirmed Vadaturskyi’s death on Saturday, saying the businessman stayed in his hometown of Mykolaiv to help the city after Russia invaded earlier this year.
“The entire 7,000-person team of the NIBULON company and the whole of Ukraine have suffered an irreparable loss,” the company said in a statement.
A combine harvester drives through a wheat field during a harvest for the Nibulon agricultural company in Nikolaev, Ukraine.
(Vincent Mundy/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Russia and Ukraine supply the world with grain, increasing the possibility of war-induced food insecurity.
The countries reached an agreement last week to allow the safe passage of ships carrying grain out of ports in southern Ukraine. Zelenskyy said on Friday that Ukraine was ready to release its first shipment of grain from the Odessa region.
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