Moscow-Kyiv war: Wheat fields near Ukraine frontlines burn after shelling

Amid harvest in Ukraine, many fields near frontlines burn.

In Kharkiv region, an Ukrainian serviceman going by name of Kurt, told Associated Press that fires burning in wheat filed he h been working on were caused by Russian shelling.

"Russia and Russian forces are to blame for food crisis. y destroy our warehouses, our crops, our fields, our food, our animals. y destroy everything. Everything we've planted with our hands, y destroyed," he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited a Black Sea port Friday as crews prepared terminals to export grain trapped by Russia's five-month-old war.

Work followed a deal reached a week ago to allow critical food supplies to flow to millions of impoverished people facing hunger worldwide.

first ship to leave Chermorsk port in Odesa region is a Turkish vessel.

Zelenskyy said, however, that departure of wheat and or grain will begin with several ships that were alrey loed but could t leave Ukrainian ports after Russia inved in late February.

Ukraine is a key global exporter of wheat, barley, corn and sunflower oil, and loss of those supplies has raised global food prices, threatened political instability and helped push more people into poverty and hunger in alrey vulnerable countries.

Ukrainian president's unanunced visit to port is part of a broer push by Ukraine to show world that it is nearly rey to export millions of tons of grains after last week's breakthrough agreements, which were brokered by Turkey and United Nations and signed separately by Ukraine and Russia.

sides agreed to facilitate shipment of wheat and or grains from three Ukrainian ports through safe corridors on Black Sea, as well as fertilizer and food from Russia.

But a Russian missile strike on Odesa, hours after signing deal, has thrown Moscow's commitment into question and raised new concerns about safety of shipping crews, who also have to navigate waters strewn with explosive mines.

security concerns and complexities of agreements have set off a slow, cautious start, with grains having yet left Ukrainian ports.

sides are facing a ticking clock — deal is only good for 120 days.

goal over next four months is to get some 20 million tons of grain out of three Ukrainian sea ports blocked since Feb. 24 invasion.

That provides time for about four to five large bulk carriers per day to transport grain from ports to millions of people in Africa, Middle East and Asia, who are alrey facing food shorts and, in some cases, famine.