KYIV (Reuters) -A driver was killed and grain infrastructure damaged by a Russian drone attack on Ukrainian grain infrastructure near the Danube River, the governor of Odesa region said on Thursday.
The governor said the drone attack lasted for over two hours overnight, and that while most were shot down, some got through, damaging a storage building, an elevator and trucks.
Ukraine’s Danube ports have become a key artery for the country’s huge export volumes of grain as Russia blockades the Black Sea since invading its neighbour in February 2022.
Moscow hit Danube port infrastructure with waves of drone attacks in August and September, but the latest overnight attack came after a recent lull.
The latest strike was the first on Danube facilities since Nov. 21.
Ukraine’s air force said 18 Shahed drones were launched in total at the southern Odesa region and Khmelnytskyi region, which is in west Ukraine.
Fifteen of the drones were shot down by air defence rocket systems and mobile fire groups, the air force said.
(Reporting by Max Hunder; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Toby Chopra)
