Aug. 16 (UPI) — Russian drone raids on Ukraine‘s southern Odessa region destroyed warehouses and granaries at a grain-handling port on the River Danube, authorities said Wednesday.
The region was targeted by two combat-drone strikes overnight Tuesday with port and grain infrastructure the main target, but there were no deaths or injuries, according to the regional government.
“As a result of enemy strikes on one of the Danube ports, warehouses and granaries were damaged. Fires were promptly put out by employees of the State Emergency Service,” Odessa Region Gov. Oleg Kiper wrote on social media.
Working in tandem, the Ukraine Air Force and Defense Forces of Ukraine air defenses shot down 11 of the attack drones, Kiper said.
The attacks came as the first vessel to depart Ukraine since Russia withdrew from the Black Sea Grain Initiative on July 17 left Odessa via a new transport corridor established by Kyiv to evacuate commercial vessels stranded by the war from Black Sea ports.
“The Hong Kong-flagged container ship Joseph Schulte is proceeding through the corridor established for civilian vessels steaming to and from the Black Sea ports of Ukraine. This transport corridor will be primarily used to evacuate ships that were in the ports at the time of Russia’s full-scale invasion,” Vice President for the Restoration of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov said.
“The Joseph Schulte, which had been stranded in the port since February 23, 2023, is carrying more than 30,000 tons of cargo,” said Kubrakov.
The Ukrainian navy announced the creation of the sea trade corridor Thursday saying the new temporary routes would be primarily for civilian vessels to exit the ports of Odessa, Chernomorsk and Pivdennyi.
But it warned that the “military threat and mortal danger from the Russian Federation” remained following its withdrawal from the U.N.-brokered grain initiative that allowed Ukraine’s ports to ship out the country’s wheat, corn and barley via “no-fire” grain corridors.
Since then, Russia has mounted a barrage of attacks against Ukraine’s ports and grain handling infrastructure including a major grain export facility on the eastern bank of the Danube River near the border with Romania on Aug. 2 and a raid on Chornomorsk port July 19 that destroyed 60,000 tons of grain, according to Ukrainian officials.
