Ukrainian agriculture minister submits resignation: Aide

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.

Senior lawmaker Mykola Solskyi has agreed to accept an offer to become Ukraine's agriculture minister, Solskyi told Reuters on Thursday.

Leshchenko's resignation had been reported by APK-Inform consultancy earlier on Thursday, four weeks since Russia attacked Ukraine, starting a crisis 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 operation.

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.

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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.

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