Russian forces launched a new drone attack on southern Ukraine’s coastal Odesa region, including the Danube River port of Izmail, targeting infrastructure on a crucial alternative route for grain shipments amid Moscow’s blockage of Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
Ukraine’s defence ministry said on the messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that a grain silo was damaged in the attack. There were no reports of casualties, according to Odesa region governor Oleh Kiper’s post on Telegram.
Ukraine’s ports across the Danube from Romania accounted for around a quarter of grain exports before Russia walked away from the Black Sea deal and have since become the main route out, with grain loaded onto barges and shipped to Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta.
Russia has continuously attacked Ukraine’s ports and grain export facilities since pulling out of the deal and said that it would consider ships sailing to any of those ports a military threat.
Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis called Russia’s repeated attacks on Ukraine’s Danube infrastructure near Romania “unacceptable.”
“Russia’s continued attacks against the Ukrainian civilian infrastructure on Danube, in the proximity of Romania, are unacceptable. These are war crimes and they further affect capacity to transfer their food products towards those in need in the world,” Iohannis said on social media.
Since Russia’s withdrawal from the grain deal, ships heading toward Ukraine have laid anchor close to the coast, wary of a possible assault. Despite Russia’s warnings, some Turkish-managed ships resumed sailing and recently arrived directly at Izmail from the Black Sea.
Russian drones had already targeted Izmail in late July. The new drone strikes, which have also caused wheat and corn prices to rise, may put a halt to that cautious restart of sailing.
As a result of the deal’s collapse Ukraine’s grain exports are estimated to have dropped by about 40% in July. According to Ukrainian officials, Moscow has struck 26 port facilities, five civilian vessels and 180,000 tonnes of grain in nine days of attacks since quitting the grain deal.
