RUSSIAN DRONES ATTACKED the district encompassing Ukraine’s Danube river port of Izmail for the fourth time in five days, the regional governor has said.

Following the collapse of the deal allowing grain shipments from Black Sea ports, Russia has ramped up attacks on Ukraine’s southern Odesa and Mykolaiv regions, home to ports and infrastructure vital for agriculture exports.

The latest overnight attack, using Iranian-made Shahed drones, lasted three hours, Odesa regional governor Oleg Kiper said on Telegram.

“This is the fourth attack on Izmail district in the last five days,” Kiper said.

“Civil and port infrastructure facilities, an elevator and an administrative building were damaged.”

A civilian truck driver sustained a minor leg injury, he added.

The Ukrainian air force said 33 Russian attack drones were launched during the night in several groups, “mainly in the direction of the southern districts of Odesa region”.

It claimed 25 of the drones had been destroyed.

Izmail, on the border with NATO member Romania across the Danube, has become a main export route for Ukrainian products following Russia’s withdrawal from a UN-brokered grain deal in July.

Yesterday, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis called for an “urgent investigation” into debris, believed to be the remains of a drone, which was discovered on its soil following attacks in Ukraine.

The discovery was made around Plauru, which faces Izmail across the Danube.

Iohannis said that if the debris was confirmed to have come from a Russian drone, it would be “completely inadmissible and a serious violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Romania, a NATO ally”.