“Ukrainian harvest this year threatened to double,” the Ukrainian president tweeted in English. His country’s main goal, Zelensky said, was to prevent a global food crisis caused by the Russian invasion. His comments came as it emerged that the owner of one of Ukraine’s biggest agricultural companies had been killed in the bombing of the strategic southern city of Mykolaiv, near the Black Sea. Before the invasion, Ukraine was known as the breadbasket of Europe, a key supplier for countries in North Africa, the Middle East and Asia. When Russia invaded, it blockaded Ukraine’s ports, triggering a global grain shortage that prompted the UN to warn of impending famine. In 2021, Ukraine produced 80 million metric tons of grain, including wheat, corn and barley, enough to feed 400 million people for six months, according to a video tweeted by Zelenskiy. This year Ukraine is on track to harvest and ship less than half that amount, the video said. Zelensky said last week that Ukraine was ready to allow grain ships to sail through its waters, but was waiting for the green light from the UN and Turkey. Under an agreement signed on July 22, the UN and Turkey have guaranteed the safe passage of ships carrying grain from three Ukrainian ports. Denied access to its major ports, Ukraine seeks to export grain by road and rail, but faces delays and red tape at borders, as well as capacity constraints on alternative routes. As a result, mountains of Ukrainian grain remain stuck in silos and food prices hit a 10-year high early in 2022, prompting the UN’s World Food Program to warn of the risk of multiple famines in the next one to two years without swift action. Separately, the owner of one of Ukraine’s largest agricultural companies was killed in a bombing of the southern city of Mykolaiv this weekend. Oleksiy Vadaturskyi, the majority owner of Nibulon, and his wife, Raisa Vadaturska, were killed in their home during shelling that hit multiple targets, including schools, a sports center and several residences, local governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram. Nibulon, which is headquartered in Mykolaiv, produces and exports wheat, barley and corn. It has its own fleet and shipyard and can store 2.25 million tons of grain, the largest capacity in Ukraine. Vadaturskyi founded the company 30 years ago and “did a lot for the Mykolaiv region and Ukraine,” Kim said, according to Ukrainian media. Authorities in Mykolaiv said on Sunday that the city had suffered the heaviest shelling of the war. “Mykolaiv was heavily bombed today. Probably the strongest so far,” said the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Senkevych. “Loud explosions were heard after one in the morning and around five in the morning.” Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am The city is the largest urban center controlled by Ukraine near the front lines of the Kherson region, where a counteroffensive is underway to take control of the coastal region seized by Russian forces. Mykolaiv has been bombed daily for several weeks, and about half of its pre-war population of 500,000 people has left the city.