MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian state news agency RIA said overnight Russian strikes on the Ukrainian port of Izmail had hit port and grain infrastucture housing foreign mercenaries and military hardware, as well as a naval ship repair yard.
RIA cited Sergei Lebedev, a man it described as a coordinator of an underground group in the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv and who it said had sources in Izmail, Ukraine’s main inland port across the Danube River from Romania.
It quoted Lebedev as saying that there had been eight separate Russian strikes on Izmail and that an oil terminal had been hit, a repair yard for Ukrainian naval cutters, a port building thought to house foreign forces, and a grain storage unit and elevator where it said foreign military hardware was stored.
Reuters was not able to verify Lebedev’s assertions. A video released by the Ukrainian authorities showed firefighters on ladders battling a huge blaze in a multi-storey building. Several other large buildings were in ruins, and grain spilled out of at least two wrecked silos.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Philippa Fletcher)