Russia strikes Ukraine’s Danube port
Russia has attacked Ukraine’s main inland port across the Danube River from Romania sending global food prices higher as it ramps up its use of force to prevent Ukraine from exporting grain.
The attacks destroyed buildings in the port of Izmail and halted ships in their tracks as they prepared to arrive there to load up with Ukrainian grain in defiance of a de-facto blockade Russia reimposed in mid-July.
Commercial ship tracking data showed dozens of international ships halting and dropping anchor at the mouth of the Danube, many of them registered to arrive in Izmail from the Black Sea in an apparent bid to open a breach in Russia’s blockade.
The port, across the river from NATO-member Romania, is the main alternative route out of Ukraine for grain exports, since Russia’s blockade halted traffic at Ukraine’s Black Sea ports in mid-July.
Video released by the Ukrainian authorities showed firefighters on ladders battling a huge blaze several stories high in a building covered with broken windows. Several other large buildings were in ruins, and grain spilled out of at least two wrecked silos.
Two industry sources said operations at the port were suspended. Seaport authority head Yuriy Lytvyn said on Facebook that repair work had already begun and the port infrastucture continued to operate.
There were no reports of casualties, Odesa region governor Oleh Kiper wrote in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
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“Russian terrorists have once again attacked ports, grain, global food security,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram.
Russia has attacked Ukrainian agricultural and port infrastructure for more than two weeks, since refusing to extend an agreement that had lifted its war-time blockade of Ukrainian ports last year.
Moscow has described its recent attacks on Ukraine’s grain infrastructure as retaliation for a Ukrainian strike on a bridge to Crimea, used to supply its troops in southern Ukraine.
U.S. ambassador Bridget Brink condemned the attacks in a statement, listing recent Russian targets: “Homes. Ports. Grain silos. Historic buildings. Men. Women. Children.
“Round-the-clock and intensifying Russian strikes on Kryvyi Rih, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Kherson make it clear once again Russia has no desire for peace, no thought for civilian safety, and no regard for people around the world who rely on food from Ukraine.” Brink said.
Kyiv says the goal of the strikes is to reimpose Russia’s blockade by persuading shippers and their insurance companies that Ukrainian ports are unsafe to resume exports.
“It is the enemy’s priority to convince the international community and shipowners in particular that … navigation in the direction of Ukrainian-controlled ports is dangerous,” Natalia Humeniuk, military spokesperson in southern Ukraine, said.
Ukraine’s Danube river ports such as Izmail accounted for around a quarter of grain exports before Russia pulled out of the Black Sea deal, and have since become the main remaining route out, with grain loaded onto barges and shipped to Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta for shipment onwards.
