Russia has resumed its targeting of grain infrastructure in Ukraine's southern Odesa region, local officials said.

Drones were used in overnight strikes on storage facilities and ports along the Danube River that Kyiv has increasingly used for grain transport to Europe after Moscow broke off a key wartime export deal through the Black Sea.

At the same time, a loaded container ship stuck at the port of Odesa since Russia's full-scale invasion more than 17 months ago set sail and was heading through the Black Sea to the Bosporus along a temporary corridor established by Ukraine for merchant shipping.

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Ukraine's economy, badly hit by the war, is heavily dependent on farming.

Its agricultural exports, like those of Russia, are also crucial for world supplies of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other food that developing nations rely on.

After the Kremlin last month tore up an agreement brokered last summer by the UN and Turkey to ensure safe Ukraine grain exports through the Black Sea, Kyiv has sought to reroute transport through the Danube and road and rail links into Europe.

But transport costs that way are much higher, some European countries have balked at the consequences for local grain prices.

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