Ukrainian forces downed 17 Russian drones over the southern Odesa region, officials said Monday, adding that strikes caused damage in a district on the Danube river that borders NATO member Romania.
“Seventeen drones were shot down by our air defense forces,” regional governor Oleg Kiper wrote on Telegram, adding there were no civilian casualties.
“But, unfortunately, there are also hits,” he said. “In several settlements of Izmail district, warehouses and production buildings, agricultural machinery and equipment of industrial enterprises were damaged.”
The Danube river port of Izmail has become a main export route for Ukrainian products via Romania following Russia’s withdrawal in July from a UN-brokered Black Sea grain deal that had aimed to ensure safe grain shipments from Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military said Russia had used Iranian-made Shahed attack drones in the “massive” overnight attack, which “was directed at the civil infrastructure of the area of the Danube”.
The strikes come a day after Ukraine fought off a barrage of Russian drones in the Odesa region.
Russia’s army said Sunday it had targeted fuel storage facilities in the port town of Reni, which also lies on the Danube river that separates Ukraine from Romania.
Monday’s attack comes hours before a summit in Russia between President Vladimir Putin and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who hopes to revive the grain deal.