Russian drones hit Danube River port infrastructure that’s vital to Ukraine’s grain exports, injuring at the least two folks within the assault on southern elements of the Odesa area on Sunday, Ukrainian officers mentioned.
The Danube has turn into Ukraine’s foremost route for exporting grain since July, when Russia stop a UN and Turkey-brokered deal that had given secure passage to Kyiv’s exports of grains, oilseeds and greens oils through the Black Sea.
Sunday’s assault came about the day earlier than Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan are resulting from maintain talks within the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. Turkey has been urgent to revive the grain deal.
Ukraine’s South Military Command mentioned on social media that at the least two civilians have been injured within the early morning assault on what it referred to as “civil infrastructure of the Danube.”
The Ukrainian Air Force mentioned air protection techniques shot down 22 of the 25 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia.
Officials didn’t give particulars of which port facility was hit however some Ukrainian media reported blasts within the Reni port, which together with Izmail is one in every of Ukraine’s two main ports on the Danube. The army mentioned a fireplace that resulted from the assault on the facility was shortly extinguished.
The Russian Defence Ministry was quoted by Interfax as saying {that a} group of Russian drones efficiently struck gas depots on the Reni port utilized by the Ukrainian army.
Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the reviews.
Reni and Izmail have been repeatedly attacked by Russian drones in latest weeks.
“Russian terrorists continue to attack port infrastructure in the hope of provoking a food crisis and famine in the world,” the Ukrainian president’s chief of employees Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram.
He posted a photograph of a firefighter directing water on the burning ruins of concrete constructions.
The Black Sea grain deal, reached in July 2022, aimed to alleviate a world meals disaster. Ukraine is a serious producer of grains and oilseeds and the interruption to its exports after the outbreak of struggle in February final yr pushed world meals costs to report highs.
Russia has complained that underneath the deal its personal meals and fertilizer exports confronted obstacles and that not sufficient Ukrainian grain was going to nations in want. — Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
