On the night of August 16, Russian troops carried out an attack on the port infrastructure in the Odessa and Nikolaev regions of Ukraine. Shahed drones were used for strikes, 13 of them were shot down, the command of the Ukrainian Air Force said . How many drones were released in total is not reported.
The head of the Odessa Regional Military Administration Oleg Kiper said that the blow was delivered to the port infrastructure in the south of the region, warehouses and granaries were damaged in one of the ports on the Danube. People, according to reports, were not injured. Kiper published a photo of the aftermath of the strikes.
The head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, subsequently specified that the strikes were carried out on the port of Reni. This, along with Izmail, is one of the major ports on the Danube.
Since Russia pulled out of the so-called grain deal in mid-July, the Russian military has been regularly attacking ports in the Odessa region, both on the Black Sea and on the Danube. On the night of August 2, as reported, in Izmail, port and industrial infrastructure facilities were destroyed, fires broke out. The elevator, grain sheds, tanks of one of the cargo terminals, production, storage and administrative premises, as well as the building of the sea station were damaged.
- The Russian military has previously stated that after the closure of the grain corridor on July 17, they will consider merchant ships going to Ukrainian ports as military targets.
- The grain deal, under which food is exported from the Black Sea ports blocked by Russia, was concluded in July last year with the assistance of Turkey and the UN. The agreement has been extended several times. The last time was May 17th.
- Russia claims that the part of the deal concerning the export of Russian food and fertilizers was not carried out. Moscow emphasizes that it is ready to return to the agreement as soon as all its interests are taken into account.
- The Russian military said it could consider ships bound for Ukrainian ports as potential military targets. On August 13, it was reported that a Russian patrol ship opened warning fire on Sunday morning, demanding that the Palau-flagged cargo ship Sukru Okan heading for the port of Izmail stop moving. The Russian military boarded the ship to check the cargo. The Ukrainian authorities, commenting on the incident, called the actions of the Russian side “blatant disregard for the rights of the Black Sea states to free navigation and peaceful passage of their ships through the territorial sea of coastal countries.” Kyiv called on the international community to respond to the situation.
Source : SVOBODA