00:01Farmers here in the Rostov region of southern Russia are expecting a good harvest.
00:05But they're worried. Long-range Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian fuel refineries have caused
00:09a spike in the price of diesel they need to fuel their tractors and combines. And attacks on ships
00:14in the Azov Sea have strangled a vital export route. Lyubov Fedorchenko is the general manager
00:23of this farm. She says that while the harvest is coming in, exports through the Black Sea have come
00:28to a standstill. Barley on halt, wheat on halt. She says they desperately need money now. They
00:34need to sell the harvest to buy diesel fuel and fertilizer. Fedorchenko's problems highlight the
00:39scale of the disruption to farmers in Russia, the world's top wheat exporter. Ukraine on Friday
00:45released footage of what it said were drone attacks on Russian cargo vessels and fuel tankers in the
00:49Black Sea. Russia and Ukraine have struck dozens of each other's ships in the past week, including
00:55tankers and cargo vessels, a new phase in a war that had been largely fought on the ground and in
01:00the skies. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov this week condemned Ukraine's strikes on shipping,
01:07saying it, quote, goes beyond even piracy. A Ukrainian military source this week said they
01:12only strike, quote, military targets or targets that contribute to strengthening Russia's combat
01:16capability. And Ukraine's operations come as Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukrainian deep-water
01:22ports, which are vital to Kiev's wartime economy, though strikes have intensified in past weeks.
01:28And traders and analysts say they've led to a partial halt in grain shipments and an almost
01:32complete suspension of grain purchases at port terminals. Back in Russia, the agriculture minister
01:37on Friday promised farmers would get the fuel they needed after Ukraine hit several major refineries
01:43earlier this month. Fedorchenko says it's getting worse and worse every year. She described last year's crop
01:50stifled by drought, and this year it was the financial situation. There is a harvest, she said, but no way
01:59to sell it.
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