Russia fired swarms of drones at Ukrainian grain and port amenities earlier than daybreak on Monday, the second large-scale drone assault previously 48 hours within the southern Odesa area, aimed on the Ukrainian aspect of the Danube River.
The newest assault lasted greater than three hours, Ukrainian officers stated, including that they shot down 17 drones focusing on the Izmail district, the positioning of a key river port, however that some evaded air defenses. It got here hours earlier than President Vladimir V. Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have been anticipated to debate restart transport agricultural merchandise throughout the Black Sea.
“Warehouses and production buildings, agricultural machinery and equipment of industrial enterprises were damaged,” the pinnacle of the Odesa regional army administration, Oleg Kiper, stated in an announcement. There have been no quick studies of casualties.
Emergency crews have been nonetheless coping with the destruction brought on by a wave of assaults earlier than daybreak on Sunday, which the Ukrainian army stated featured greater than two dozen drones and injured a minimum of two civilians.
Since pulling out of the Black Sea grain accord, which had allowed Ukraine to ship its agricultural merchandise by way of the waterway, Russia has stepped up assaults on Ukrainian port amenities on the Black Sea in addition to on the Danube, decided to maintain its stranglehold on the Ukrainian economic system. In mid-August, granaries and warehouses in Izmail and Reni, one other port on the river, have been broken in Russian assaults.
The ports lie on the decrease Danube, the place it varieties a part of Ukraine’s border with Romania earlier than emptying into the Black Sea. The current assaults have come perilously near Romania, a NATO member, elevating fears that an errant Russian drone or missile flying a brief distance off target may threat dragging the United States and its allies right into a direct army confrontation with Moscow.
On Monday, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated on social media that Russian drones had fallen on Romanian territory — a declare that Romania shortly rejected. In an announcement, Romania’s protection ministry stated that it “categorically denies” the studies and that “at no time” was there a “direct” risk to its territory or territorial waters.
Ukrainian officers have been working to persuade transport corporations and worldwide companions that transport from the Black Sea ports in Odesa can resume with none Russian settlement.
In an try and get exports of grain and different items transferring once more, Kyiv established a short lived hall previous the mines Ukraine has deployed alongside the coast, permitting ships to succeed in the territorial waters of Romania after which Bulgaria and Turkey, all NATO members. That has begun to permit civilian ships which were caught in Ukrainian ports since earlier than Russia’s full-scale invasion to lastly depart the nation.
Source: www.nytimes.com