March 26 (Reuters) – A Russian overnight drone attack damaged port facilities on the Danube river in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region on the Black Sea, local officials said on Thursday.
Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app that one person was injured in the attack, which also damaged energy and industrial infrastructure.
Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority said that one of the ports on the Danube had come under attack. It did not name the port, but said that warehouses, quays and administrative buildings were damaged. It also reported damage on the premises of separate port operators.
The port continues to operate, it said.
The mayor of the town of Izmail, Ukraine’s biggest port on the Danube, which lies across the river from NATO member Romania, said the town had come under another “massive” Russian drone attack.
Local officials in the Izmail district said that close to 17,000 consumers were without power as a result of the attack, which also cut off water supply in the nearby town of Vylkove.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 153 drones at the country, of which 130 were downed or neutralised.
Fragments of a drone repelled by Ukrainian air defences fell on Romanian territory, the Romanian defence ministry said.
Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s maritime export routes during the four-year-old war, striking ports vital to foreign trade and the wartime economy.
The pace of attacks has increased, with Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha saying on Monday that Odesa port infrastructure has faced more strikes in the past month than during the entire previous year.
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Louise Heavens)
