LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) – Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Roman Leshchenko has submitted his resignation, an aide told Reuters on Thursday, without stating a reason.
The aide, who declined to be named, said parliament would vote on whether to accept the resignation, possibly as soon as Thursday.
Leshchenko’s resignation had been reported by APK-Inform consultancy earlier on Thursday, four weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, starting a war that has affected spring crop sowing and Ukraine’s ability to export agricultural products.
Leshchenko told Reuters in an interview this week that Ukraine’s spring crop sowing area may more than halve this year from 2021 levels to some 7 million hectares, versus 15 million hectares expected before the Russian invasion.
Ukraine is a major global agriculture producer and exporter, and the hostilities may sharply reduce the 2022 harvest and exports in the forthcoming 2022/23 season.
Ukraine has already suspended exports of rye, oats, millet, buckwheat, salt, sugar, meat and livestock since the invasion, and introduced licences for wheat, corn and sunflower oil exports.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
