The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, Aug. 3, edition that Russian drones on Wednesday hit a Ukrainian port city along the border with Romania, causing significant damage and a huge fire at facilities that are key to Ukrainian grain exports. An Associated Press dispatch to The Globe reports that the attacks followed the end of a deal with Russia that had allowed Ukrainian shipments to world markets from the Black Sea port of Odesa. Since scrapping the deal, Russia has hammered the country's ports with strikes, compounding the blow to the key industry. Ukrainian officials say Moscow has hit 26 port facilities, five civilian vessels and 180,000 tons of grain in nine days of strikes since quitting the grain deal. The country's Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said that about 40,000 metric tonnes of grain, which had been expected by countries in Africa, China and Israel, was damaged in the attack. Wheat prices rose about 3 per cent and corn prices nearly 2 per cent on Wednesday in Chicago trading after the new attacks, before erasing those spikes and trading down. It showed the continued volatility in world markets as Russia targets Ukraine's ports and agricultural infrastructure.