KYIV (Reuters) -Russian drone attacks damaged port infrastructure in southern Ukraine, officials said on Thursday, while neighbouring Moldova said two drones had blown up on its soil and NATO member Romania found drone fragments and remnants of explosives at two sites.
Kyiv said Moscow attacked Ukraine with 140 drones overnight, injuring one person in the Izmail district of Ukraine’s Odesa region that lies on the Danube River and borders Romania and Moldova.
Photos shared by the emergency services showed rescuers putting out a fire at the site of an attack, without specifying exactly where. Authorities often withhold precise information for what they say are wartime security reasons.
The southern region is a central hub for Ukraine’s Black Sea exports and its port facilities have been regularly attacked by long-range strikes throughout the war launched by Russia in February 2022.
Out of 140 drones, the Ukrainian air force said it shot down 85 and 52 did not reach their targets, probably due to electronic countermeasures.
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
Moldova’s Foreign Ministry said four Russian drones had fallen on its territory and two had exploded.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu said Russian actions were “putting Moldovan lives at risk”.
“Russia respects no borders, attacks civilians, spreads terror… Leave us, peaceful nations, alone,” she wrote on X.
Moldova’s foreign ministry produced a video showing Russian Ambassador Oleg Ozerov being shown fragments of drone after being summoned to the ministry. One piece bore the name Geran-2, the Russian designation of the Iranian-designed Shahed drone.
The Ministry said it was closing down a Russian cultural centre in Chisinau to protest against violations of its airspace.
In Romania, which shares Europe’s longest land border with Ukraine and has had drone fragments repeatedly landing on its territory, residents of the eastern counties of Tulcea and Galati were advised to take cover.
Romania scrambled two F-16 fighter jets and two of Spain’s Eurofighters currently taking part in air policing missions, the defence ministry said.
Late on Thursday, the ministry said it found drone fragments at two locations on its side of the Danube, 5 kms (three miles) west and south of Ukraine’s river port of Reni.
“Both drones carried explosive charges that were destroyed on impact,” the ministry said, adding that both sites were far from residential areas and that NATO had been notified.
(Reporting by Anastasiia Malenko; additional reporting by Luiza Ilie in Bucharest and Alexander Tanas in Chisinau; Editing by Ron Popeski and Stephen Coates)
