Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian port of the Danube, damaging silos and grain warehouses.
A Ukrainian official said that grain silos and warehouses were bombed during successive attacks by Russian drones on a port on the Danube River in the country located near the border with Romania.
The governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region, Oleh Kipper, said on Wednesday that two waves of Russian drones hit a river port in the south of the country.
Ukraine has two major ports on the Danube River – Reni and Izmail – that have become hubs for the country’s grain exports since Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and Moscow’s recent withdrawal from a UN-backed agreement that allowed safe passage of grain stocks across the border. sea.
Russian terrorists attacked the Odessa region twice last night with attack drones. “The main target is the port and grain infrastructure in the south of the region,” Kiper said on messaging app Telegram.
The governor did not specify which port was attacked.
Ukraine’s presidential office said in a separate statement that there were no casualties in the attacks. Pictures posted by the governor showed the destroyed metal walls of the port’s storage facilities, scattered piles of grain and sunflowers.
There was no immediate comment from Russia.
Social media groups monitoring the war reported hearing the firing of air defense systems near the ports of Ismail and Reni earlier Wednesday morning.
Kiber had asked residents of the Ismail neighborhood to take cover at around 1:30 am (22:30 GMT on Tuesday) and lifted the air raid alert one hour later.
The Ukrainian Air Force said that overnight it destroyed 13 Russian military aircraft over the Odessa and Mykolaiv regions in the south of the country.
It was not immediately clear how many drones Russia had launched to attack Danube river ports.
Ukraine’s Danube River ports accounted for nearly a quarter of Ukraine’s total grain exports before Russia recently pulled out of a deal to allow safe passage for Ukrainian grain exports through the country’s Black Sea ports.
The Danube ports have since become the main export route, with grain shipments sent on barges from Ukraine up the Danube to Romania and to the Black Sea port of Constanta for later shipment.
A Russian attack on Port Ismail in early August sent global food prices soaring.
The attack by Russian drones on the Ukrainian port of Izmail earlier this month was so severe that it smashed windows in Romanian villages across the Danube, according to Al Jazeera’s correspondent.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that air defense systems had destroyed three Ukrainian drones early on over the country’s Kaluga region.
The ministry added that there were no casualties or damage in the attempted attack, which took place around 5 am Moscow time (0200 GMT).
Kaluga region is located southwest of Moscow.
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