Russia bombarded infrastructure at a port on the Danube river in southern Ukraine with drones, local authorities said on Monday, destroying a grain hangar in an escalation of its efforts to cripple Ukrainian agriculture, one of the country’s leading industries.

The attack appeared to signal that Moscow, having pulled out from a deal that enabled Ukraine to ship its grain across the Black Sea, is now targeting the country’s alternative export routes.

A local news website in the port of Reni said the attacks had happened there and published a photograph of the aftermath. Reni, a town of around 18,000 people more than 209km southwest of the city of Odesa, lies on the east bank of the Danube, just across from Romania, which is a member of Nato.

The drone attack occurred over the course of four hours, Oleh Kiper, the head of the regional military administration, wrote on the Telegram messaging app, adding that three drones were shot down by Ukraine’s air defences. He said that seven people were injured, three with light shrapnel wounds and one who was in serious condition.

Mike Lee, director of Green Square Agro Consultancy, which specialises in the Black Sea and Eastern Europe, said the attack appeared to be the first on a Danube port this year. He called it a “massive escalation” by Moscow in terms of the effect it could have on Ukraine’s ability to use alternative routes for its exports.

Since the Kremlin pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative last week, its forces have launched attacks nearly every night on the city of Odesa and its Black Sea port, destroying grain stocks and infrastructure.

Those attacks, along with Moscow’s warning that it would consider any ship approaching Ukraine’s Black Sea ports as potentially carrying military cargo, made Ukraine’s alternative grain routes more important.

Ukraine has been exporting around two million metric tons of grain per month through its Danube River ports, according to Benoît Fayaud, deputy executive director of Stratégie Grains, an agricultural economy research firm.

The attack on Reni could deter commercial vessels from using the port in the short term.

New York Times News Service