(Kyiv) Russian drones targeted the south of the Ukrainian region of Odessa during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, damaging port infrastructure in the district of the port city of Izmail and injuring seven people, the local governor reported.
Russia launched a total of 44 Iranian-made Shahed drones over the regions of Odessa (south) and Sumy (northeast), the Ukrainian Air Force added on Telegram.
These drones were targeting “mainly the south of the Odessa region, port infrastructures”, indicated the air force, according to which 32 of them were shot down.
The regional governor of Odessa, Oleg Kiper, said for his part that the attack had hit Reni and Izmail, key towns for Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea.
Seven civilians were injured – six in Reni and one in Izmail – two of whom are in serious condition, he said on Telegram. Civilian infrastructure, particularly “port”, was damaged, he added.
“The enemy attacked the Odessa region for 4 and a half hours,” the Southern Command of the Ukrainian army said on Telegram.
Since the abandonment in July of the grain agreement which allowed Ukraine to freely export its production, Russia has increased attacks in the southern regions of Odessa and Mykolaiv, where crucial ports and platforms for trade are located. on the Black Sea.
The river ports of Izmail and Reni, located on the Danube, on the border with Romania, a NATO member country, have thus become one of the main export routes for Ukrainian agricultural products.
After these new attacks, Bucharest announced on Wednesday a new discovery of possible drone debris.
“They were identified around 11:30 a.m. (4:30 a.m. Eastern time) by an IAR 330-Puma helicopter, in the vicinity of the localities of Nufaru and Victoria,” the Ministry of Defense said in a statement, alerted earlier by calls from residents to the emergency number.
“They may have come from a drone and were scattered over an area of several tens of meters,” and they will now be analyzed, added the same source.
Other drone fragments, some of which were “similar to those used by the Russian army”, were found last week in the same region of Tulcea (south-east).
In the process, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis protested to Moscow, condemning “strongly a violation of airspace”.
