A “massive” Ukrainian drone and missile strike on Russia’s port city of Novorossiysk has damaged grain export terminals and hit the last major Russian naval base on the Black Sea.
Three people, including an eight-year-old child, were killed and 24 people were injured in the Wednesday nighttime attack.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Ukraine had launched rocket and underwater drones in a “unique operation” to strike the Russian naval base at Novorossiysk, although he did not mention grain terminals being hit.
“The occupying fleet and all the infrastructure that supports it will not be safe as long as Russian aggression continues,” Zelensky said.
Most of Russia’s Black Sea fleet is docked in Novorossiysk – one of the largest ports in Russia – after it was forced to vacate its former home base of Sevastopol, in the Russia-occupied Crimean peninsula, which was too exposed to Ukrainian attacks.
A major grain trading company confirmed to Russia’s TASS news agency that its terminal had been hit, while another told Reuters and Russian outlet RBK the same.
The Russian agriculture ministry announced on Wednesday that it was working to redirect cargo flows to ports in the Baltic and Caspian Seas as well as land routes. It did not make any reference to Ukraine’s attacks but said it was “taking into account current logistical constraints”.
Repeated explosions reportedly rang out over Novorossiysk throughout the night as air defences shot down aerial objects.
An emergency situation was declared in the city on Wednesday, after the barrage of drones struck areas around the port and damaged pipelines, suspending water supply for the city.
Elsewhere in the region a man was killed by drone debris, Regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said. Several locations in the surrounding Krasnodar region were also struck by “several hundred drones” overnight, Kondratyev added, with dozens of buildings damaged, including homes.
For its part, Moscow launched aerial strikes which killed at least 11 civilians overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday. The majority were killed when Russia hit the city of Zaporizhzhia with ballistic missiles and glide bombs.