Russia says downed drones over 2 regions – DW – 09/26/2023

An overnight Russian air strike on the key Ukrainian grain exporting port of Izmail injured two people and damaged infrastructure, the governor of the Odesa region said.

Izmail is a port on the Danube River, in southern Ukraine, directly opposite NATO and European Union member Romania and is one of the main exit routes of Ukrainian agricultural products since Moscow ended the grain deal.

A port building, storage facilities and more than 30 trucks and cars were damaged in the attack, which lasted more than two
hours, Governor Oleh Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app.

The Ukrainian military reported shooting down 26 of the 38 Iranian-made attack drones it said were launched by Russia.

Moscow has intensified its air attacks on Ukrainian ports on the Danube River in recent weeks, including Izmail and Reni, damaging grain warehouses.

The waterway became an almost immediate alternative passageway for grain ships after Russia resumed its blockade of Ukrainian ports along the Black Sea. 

The physical damage to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastapol is “certainly severe but localized,” the British Ministry of Defense said in its regular intelligence update.

“The fleet almost certainly remains of capable of fulfilling its  core wartime missions of cruise missile strikes and local security patrols,” the ministry said.

It added that the fleet’s ability to continue “wider security patrols and enforce its de facto blockade of Ukrainian ports will be diminished. 

A deep strike battle is underway in the Black Sea, likely forcing Russia into a reactive posture, it said. 

Ukraine’s military claimed on Monday that it had killed the commander of the Russian Black Sea fleet and 33 other officers in a strike last week. Kyiv said the strike was timed to coincide with a meeting of naval officials.

Ukraine has sharply increased the number of strikes in Crimea, a strategically important peninsula that was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. 

Expert: Russia’s naval strategy ‘falling apart’

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Russian air defense units repelled several Ukraine drone attacks over the Belgorod and Kursk regions late on Monday, destroying at least 11 drones in total, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.

The ministry said, in several separate statements on the Telegram messaging app, that seven drones were downed over the Belgorod region and four over the Kursk region.

The ministry provided no information on possible damage or injuries from the attacks. Moscow rarely discloses details, unless civilian or non-military infrastructure is damaged.

Both Belgorod and Kursk regions border Ukraine and have been subject to numerous drone attacks in the course of the war that Russia launched against its neighbor in February 2022.

Ukraine rarely claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia or on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine but has been saying in recent months that destroying Russia’s military infrastructure helps the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

rm, dh/fb (AFP, dpa)