Ukrainian agricultural holding company Kernel has halted operations at all eight of its oil extraction plants due to massive Russian strikes on food industry facilities. The company, Ukraine’s largest producer and exporter of sunflower oil, has also suspended all purchases of oilseeds.
“In recent days, Russian drones have deliberately attacked production sites belonging to Ukrainian processing companies, including Kernel assets. The strikes damaged production buildings, equipment and tanks,” the company’s press office said.
Kernel explained that oil extraction is a continuous technological process associated with an increased risk of fires. According to the company, a strike on operating equipment poses a direct threat of a large-scale fire and endangers employees’ lives.
Standard procedures for a safe shutdown have been carried out at all facilities. The employees are safe, Kernel said.
Production halted, deliveries continue
The company said that despite the suspension of processing, it remains operationally and financially stable. Available quantities of finished products continue to be shipped from warehouses, while its commitments to Ukrainian farmers and partners will be fulfilled.
Kernel has not announced a deadline for resuming production. The statement also did not specify the exact scale of the damage at the individual sites.
The eight plants have a combined annual capacity to process 3.5 million tonnes of sunflower seeds. The production sites are located in the Poltava, Khmelnytskyi, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kirovohrad and Kharkiv regions. Two of the plants in Kharkiv region have been out of operation since 2022 because of the war.
Warning of strikes on the food industry
The shutdown followed a warning issued on 10 November, when a source from Ukrainian military intelligence told The Kyiv Independent that Russia was planning attacks on food industry facilities. The targets listed included grain warehouses, processing plants, producers of sunflower and other vegetable oils, dairies, meat-processing plants and poultry farms.
At the time, the source claimed that the aim was to limit Ukraine’s agricultural export revenues and undermine the country’s food security. These claims were not accompanied by publicly presented evidence, but subsequent attacks also affected Kernel assets.
The new decision calls into question the short-term supply of the Ukrainian market and the export of vegetable oils by one of the sector’s leading producers. For now, the company says that available warehouse stocks will continue to be shipped, while processing itself remains suspended.
Sources: en.interfax.com.ua, kyivindependent.com