The Romanian defence ministry says at the moment there are no direct military threats against the country’s national territory or its territorial waters. In turn, the foreign minister Luminiţa Odobescu says that, as a NATO and EU member country, Romania has the most important and strongest security guarantees in its history. She had a phone conversation with the US State Secretary Antony Blinken, and together they condemned Moscow’s recent attacks on Ukrainian civilians and river and maritime infrastructure, as well as Russia’s cynical undermining of the world’s food security.
The statements come after a Russian drone attack hit a Ukrainian port near Odessa and destroyed a grain hangar. Ukraine’s southern operational command says the Russian attack targeted particularly the ports on the Ukrainian side of the Danube River, seen as alternative routes for the country’s grain exports.
Specifically, the Russians targeted the river ports in Ismail and Reni, in the south of Bessarabia, a former Romanian territory annexed by Stalin’s Soviet Union following an ultimatum in 1940, and taken over by Ukraine after the USSR collapsed in 1991.
The port of Reni, vital to the transport of commodities on the Danube, is just 13 km across the river from the Romanian city of Galați. At least 3 drones were destroyed by the Ukrainian defence, but a fourth one managed to strike a grain hangar. In turn, the head of the administration of the port city of Ismail, Rodion Abashev, confirmed in a Facebook post that Russia’s attack left 6 people wounded.
The week before, Russia terminated a deal adopted in July 2022 under the UN aegis and brokered by Turkey, which enabled Ukraine to export 33 million tonnes of agricultural products in spite of the war. According to Kyiv, more than 400 million people around the world rely on the food products exported by Ukraine.
The president of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, firmly condemned Russia’s attack on the Ukrainian civilian infrastructure on the Danube. „This recent escalation poses serious risks to the security in the Black Sea. It also affects the transit of grain from Ukraine, and implicitly global food security in the near future,” the Romanian official said on Twitter. Also in Bucharest, PM Marcel Ciolacu said targeting port infrastructure is yet another proof of Russia’s intention to undermine Ukrainian grain exports to global markets, which severely destabilises global food security.
Bogdan Matei, Radio Romania International
