Ukraine’s Danube ports have become a lifeline

ON THE NIGHT of July 30th, 2022 Oleksiy Vadatursky went to bed a happy man. The founder of Nibulon, a grain company, had just arrived at his home in Mykolaiv after inspecting work on a new export terminal at Izmail, 360km away on the Danube. He had acquired a “pair of wings”, his driver later quipped, lifted by his company’s quick progress in turning an undeveloped plot into a much-needed wartime escape route for exports.But a few hours later the 74-year-old tycoon was dead, killed along with his wife in a Russian missile attack. One missile landed a few metres away from their basement shelter with a blast so strong it left the couple’s silhouettes on the walls. “The Russians were destroying infrastructure and military facilities,” recalled Andriy, Mr Vadatursky’s son. “They destroyed whatever they thought they needed to… and that, apparently, included my father.”