On the night of June 5, a Russian drone hit the Kernel grain terminal at the Chornomorsk port. Storage and transshipment infrastructure was damaged — part of the cargo spilled outside, and terminal operations were halted. Auxiliary warehouse facilities were partially destroyed.
"Most importantly, none of our employees were injured"
Kernel Press Service
This is already the third attack on Kernel facilities in less than a year. In August 2024, a processing plant in western Ukraine was damaged, and on the night of May 3, 2025, drones hit an oil terminal at the same port — over 1,100 tons of vegetable oil leaked then. Now — the grain terminal.
Reconstruction that hasn't finished yet
The context makes the situation more acute. According to the company's 2025 financial year report, Kernel is still recovering the terminal after a missile strike in 2023 — reconstruction completion is scheduled for October 2025. The facility's full transshipment capacity — 10 million tons of grain per year — has not yet been restored.
That is, the enterprise is simultaneously repairing the consequences of a previous strike and receiving a new one.
Why this matters beyond one port
Kernel is Ukraine's largest agroexporter. Chornomorsk is one of two key ports through which Ukrainian grain and oil reach world markets. Any damage here means not just company losses: contract delays, overloading of alternative routes, higher insurance and freight costs for the entire agricultural sector.
- May 19 — drone attack on Kernel elevator in Khmelnytsky region
- May 3 — strike on oil terminal in Chornomorsk, 1,100 tons of oil spilled
- June 5 — strike on grain terminal in Chornomorsk
A series of attacks on a single exporter with such intervals — this is either systematic targeting, or a coincidence that increasingly looks like anything but a coincidence.
The company is currently assessing the scale of damage. Official figures are not yet available.
If reconstruction of the grain terminal after the 2023 strike is delayed due to new damage — Kernel could enter the autumn harvest season with critically reduced transshipment capacity in Chornomorsk. Will alternative capacities be sufficient to compensate for this?
