KYIV (Reuters) – Russian kamikaze drones hit tanks with sunflower oil at one of the terminals in the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv late on Sunday, the city mayor said on Monday.
One of Ukraine’s largest ports, Mykolaiv halted shipments at the start of the Russian invasion, but Ukraine is pushing to open the port to expand shipments of food under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.
“In Mykolaiv, three drones hit an object of industrial infrastructure, where tanks with sunflower oil were ignited,” Mykolaiv mayor Oleksandr Senkevich.
The attack took place hours before explosions in the capital Kyiv from suspected Iranian-made drones, increasingly used by Russia to attack deep into Ukrainian territory.
The regional emergencies service published photos of huge tanks with flames and smoke rising over them.
Mykolaiv, located near the Russian-occupied Kherson region, has been under constant shelling in recent months. Port terminals have already been hit at least twice – in June and August.
Ukraine is conducting a counter-offensive to try to push Russian troops out of the city of Kherson to the southeast.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Peter Graff)
