A fresh wave of Russian drone strikes on Danube port installations critical for Kyiv's grain export caused damage and injury, Ukrainian authorities said on October 12, as Romania urged Russia to stop its attacks after again finding debris on its territory near the border with Ukraine.
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Ukraine's Southern Defense Force and Odesa regional Governor Oleh Kiper said that air defenses shot down 28 out of the 33 Iranian-made drones launched by Russia at the Odesa and Mykolayiv regions, but some of the drones, launched from different directions, "used complex trajectories and features of the landscape" to strike grain storage facilities in the Ukrainian port of Izmayil on the Danube River.
Since the collapse in July of a United Nations-brokered deal allowing the safe passage of Ukrainian grain shipments from Black Sea ports, Ukraine has used its Danube ports of Reni and Izmayil on the border with Romania to ship food to the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta.
Kiper said in a message on Telegram that port infrastructure and residential buildings in Izmayil sustained damage and several fires broke out but were rapidly extinguished. An 88-year-old woman sustained burns and was receiving emergency treatment in the hospital, Kiper said.
In Bucharest, Foreign Minister Luminita Odobescu said the drone strikes on Izmayil had "again serious consequences."
"New evidence of impact was found on Romania's soil. We call on Russia to stop these #war crimes," she said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The Romanian Defense Ministry said a crater caused by the possible explosion of a drone was found early on October 12 near its Danube border with Ukraine.
Romanian news reports said that the crater had a 4-meter diameter and a depth of 1.5 meters and it contained smoldering debris.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Ukrainian troops are resisting Russian forces' renewed assaults on Avdiyivka, an industrial town in the eastern region of Donetsk with a prewar population of around 31,000 people that has now shrunk to an estimated 2,000.
"Avdiyivka. We are holding our ground," Zelenskiy said on Telegram. "It is Ukrainian courage and unity that will determine how this war will end. We must all remember this."
Russian troops significantly stepped up attacks on Avdiyivka on October 10 in an effort to make a breakthrough in the area, the General Staff of the Ukrainian military said in its evening report on October 12. The Ukrainian military repelled seven attacks in the Avdiyivka area on October 12 and seven more near other towns in the Donestsk region, the General Staff said.
The report said overall there were 55 combat clashes during the day at the front.
"The enemy launched two rocket and 55 air strikes [and] launched more than 20 attacks from rocket salvo systems on the positions of our troops and populated areas," the General Staff said. "The operational situation in the east and south of Ukraine remains difficult."
Ukrainian forces also repelled attacks in the areas of Kupyansk, Lyman, and Marinska, according to the report, which also said that Russian forces tried unsuccessfully to regain its position in the Robotyny area of the Zaporizhzhya region.
The General Staff also added that Ukrainian forces continue offensive operations in the areas of Melitopol and Bakhmut.
Meanwhile, the governor of Russia's southern region of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said early on October 12 that three people were killed by debris from a downed drone that fell on a residential building.
Ukraine, whose civilian and energy infrastructure has been subjected to relentless Russian drone and air strikes that have caused massive damage and hundreds of casualties, has in recent months stepped up its own drone attacks on bordering Russian regions.