Ukraine’s air force on Wednesday said a large group of Russian army drones entered the mouth of the Danube river and headed toward the Izmail river port near the border with Romania, according to Euractiv.
Social media groups reported hearing air defence systems firing in the area near two Danube ports – Izmail and Reni.
The governor of southern Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, asked residents of Izmail district to take shelter at around 1:30 a.m. (2230 GMT) and cancelled the air raid alert one hour later.
Ukraine’s Danube ports accounted for around a quarter of grain exports before Russia pulled out of a UN-backed deal to provide safe passage for the export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea. They have since become the main route out, with grain sent on barges to Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta for shipment onwards.
A Russian attack on the Izmail port sent global food prices higher in early August.
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine recently has been moving dangerously close to Romania.
On Monday Romania’s navy said it deployed a ship and a helicopter to scout for stray mines on the country’s Black Sea coast, after a pier in the seaside resort of Costinesti was lighly damaged in an explosion.
Romania, both a European Union and NATO member, shares a 650-km border with Ukraine, is host to a US ballistic missile defence system and, as of last year, has a permanent alliance battlegroup stationed on its territory.
A Russian warship on Sunday fired warning shots at a cargo ship in the southwestern Black Sea en route to Izmail, no far from the Romanian coast.