By Pavel Polityuk
KYIV (Reuters) -Russia targeted Ukrainian ports in the southern Odesa region and the Danube River area in overnight drone attacks, setting at least one grain storage facility on fire, Ukraine's military and local authorities said on Wednesday.
The attacks were the Russia's latest on port infrastructure on the Danube, which Ukraine uses to move grain to the Romanian port of Constanta, since Moscow quit a U.N.-brokered deal that allowed Kyiv to ship grain via the Black Sea.
"The enemy hit grain storage facilities and a production and transhipment complex in the Danube region. A fire broke out in the warehouses and was quickly contained. Firefighters continue to work," the Ukrainian military said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
The military published photographs showing piles of grain under the burnt and wrecked shell of the storage facility.
Odesa governor Oleh Kiper said the attack on the region lasted three hours and that the Ukrainian air force had destroyed nine Russian drones.
"Unfortunately, there were hits to the production and transhipment complexes where a fire broke out... The damage includes grain storage facilities," Kiper said on Telegram.
Ukrainian air defences said later on Wednesday that it had shot down 11 out of 20 drones launched by Russia overnight.
An industry source told Reuters that Ukrainian Danube ports were the main targets. Ukraine operates two major ports on Danube - Izmail and Reni.
The Danube ports accounted for around a quarter of Ukrainian grain exports before Russia pulled out of the deal to provide safe passage for the export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea in July.
The ports have since become the main route out, with grain also sent on barges to Romania's Black Sea port of Constanta for shipment onwards.
Global grain prices rose earlier this month, when Russia attacked Izmail - Ukraine's main inland port across the Danube River from Romania, and the port of Reni.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Simon Cameron-Moore and Timothy Heritage)