By Pavel Polityuk and Gleb Garanich
KYIV (Reuters) -Russia carried out air strikes on Kyiv and the southern Ukrainian region of Odesa early on Wednesday, killing a civilian and causing a fire and damage at a Danube River port, Ukraine’s military said.
During a nearly three-hour drone attack on Odesa, several agricultural and port facilities were damaged, and several fires were reported in the Izmail district, an important grain exporting hub on the Danube, said regional governor Oleh Kiper.
“An employee of an agricultural enterprise, who was seriously injured, died in the hospital,” Kiper said.
Kiper did not name the port. Agriculture consultancy APK-Inform said there had been a fire at the small Kilia river port.
Ukraine operates several river ports on the Danube as well as two major ports, Reni and Izmail, which have previously been attacked by Russian drones. Kilia, which focuses on dry cargo, was attacked for the first time, APK-Inform said.
Ukraine’s air force said air defence systems destroyed 23 out of the 33 air weapons Russia launched overnight. They included 25 Iranian-made Shahed drones, seven cruise missiles and one Iskander ballistic missile, it said.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment by Moscow.
Russia also launched missiles at Kyiv early on Wednesday, though Ukrainian air defence systems shot them all down, officials said.
“Another missile attack by the enemy on a peaceful city,” Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Falling debris damaged the facades of buildings, private cars, windows in a medical facility and a police office, officials said. No casualties were reported in the capital.
Reuters’ witnesses in Kyiv heard several blasts which sounded like air defence systems being deployed at around 0550 a.m. (0250 GMT).
Since its full-scale invasion 18 months ago, Russia has frequently launched air attacks on Kyiv and other places in Ukraine far from the frontline.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Gleb Garanich in Kyiv; Writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Michael Perry, Simon Cameron-Moore and Timothy Heritage)
