Danube Port Hit
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Ukrainian Danube port hit by Russian drones Moscow says strike was on fuel depot supplying Kiev forces
Russian drones hit Danube River port infrastructure that is critical to Ukraine’s grain exports, injuring at least two people in the attack on southern parts of the Odesa region on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said.
The Danube has become Ukraine’s main route for exporting grain since July, when Russia quit a U.N. and Turkey-brokered deal that had given safe passage to Kyiv’s exports of grains, oilseeds and vegetables oils via the Black Sea.
In a statement, Moscow said the Russian Air Force conducted a group UAV strike on facilities used to refuel Ukrainian military vehicles in the port of Reni, located on the left bank of the Danube River.
“The objective of the strike was achieved. All designated targets have been hit,” the Defense Ministry said.
MOD officials also said Russia had taken out two Ukrainian ammunition depots and a drone command center in southeastern Dnepropetrovsk Region and a Kiev-controlled part of Kherson Region, again using UAV strikes.
Sunday’s attack took place the day before Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan are due to hold talks in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. Turkey has been pressing to revive the grain deal.
Ukraine’s South Military Command said on social media that at least two civilians were injured in the early morning attack on what it called “civil infrastructure of the Danube”.
The Ukrainian Air Force said air defence systems shot down 22 of the 25 Geranium drones launched by Russia.
Officials did not give details of which port facility was hit but some Ukrainian media reported blasts in the Reni port, which along with Izmail is one of Ukraine’s two major ports on the Danube. The military said a fire that resulted from the attack at the facility was quickly extinguished.
The Black Sea grain deal, reached in July 2022, aimed to alleviate a global food crisis. Ukraine is a major producer of grains and oilseeds and the interruption to its exports after the outbreak of war in February last year pushed global food prices to record highs.
Russia has complained that under the deal its own food and fertiliser exports faced obstacles and that not enough Ukrainian grain was going to countries in need.
Source RT/Reuters
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