ODESA, Aug. 22 -- A Ukrainian farmer with grain or oilseed to sell is being offered about 30 percent less for it than before the summer, and many are taking the loss and borrowing against the difference because the alternative is to watch the crop sit. That is what the closure of three Black Sea ports looks like from a field in the south, and it is why two members of the Ukrainian parliament's finance committee spent this week saying the state budget will not make its numbers.

Nina Yuzhanina put it plainly on Friday. On the actual figures for the first seven months, she said, the planned revenues in the 2026 state budget are not being fulfilled, and the situation will only get worse, because disruption to logistics has stopped a number o...