Ukraine says 26 of 38 Russian drones downed overnight

KIEV

Russia attacked Ukraine with 38 drones overnight, Kyiv's air force said Tuesday, saying it had destroyed 26 of them, but that the grain-exporting Danube river port of Izmail was hit again.

The drones that got through hit port infrastructure around Izmail, damaging more than 30 vehicles and injuring two drivers during the two-hour attack, Odesa regional governor Oleg Kiper said on Telegram.

Since July, when Moscow pulled out of a UN-brokered deal allowing safe grain shipments via the Black Sea, Russia has ramped up attacks on Ukraine's grain-exporting infrastructure in the southern Odesa and Mykolaiv regions.

"The launches of 38 Shahed-136/131 strike unmanned aerial vehicles from the southeastern direction were recorded," the air force said on the messaging platform Telegram.

The air force and other military units "destroyed 26" of the Iranian-made attack UAVs, it said.

Izmail, on the border with NATO member Romania, has become a major export route for Ukrainian agricultural products since Russia's withdrawal from the grain deal.

It has regularly been targeted by overnight Russian drone attacks in recent weeks.

The attacks came a day after Russia launched what the Ukrainian military called a "massive" aerial attack on southern Ukraine, hitting Odesa port and destroying grain stores.

Russia and Ukraine are two major agricultural powers whose supplies are crucial for global food security.

Moscow's invasion of its neighbour in February last year -- and subsequent international sanctions -- have destabilised global supplies and markets.

As part of the Tuesday overnight attacks, four people were wounded in the Kyselivka village in the southern Kherson region, said governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

And an explosion in the city of Kryvyi Rig, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, damaged homes, farm buildings and solar panels, governor Sergiy Lysak said.