Shelling of Ukrainian grain: many trucks burned on the Ukrainian-Romanian ferry crossing

On the night of September 26, the Russians attacked the international checkpoint near Izmail on the Danube, a few hundred meters from Romania. The buildings of the international crossing, warehouses and trucks that were in the customs clearance area were damaged

Oleg Kiper, the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, announced this. The State Customs Service of Ukraine also sent out information about the temporary suspension of transit operations at the “Orlivka” ferry crossing point, which was subjected to a mass attack by the Russians.

Nataliya Gumenyuk, spokeswoman for the “South” operational command, writes that a vehicle caught fire in the waiting area and clearance of the checkpoint, and also informs about the risk for the passengers of the bus that was preparing to cross the border. The State Border Service confirmed the destruction of the Orlivka checkpoint. The crew of the Romanian ferry moored to the Ukrainian coast saw with their own eyes the shelling of the Ukrainian territory. “Now there are measures to stabilize the operation after the night attack of the Russians. We will inform about the resumption of border crossing operations, and for now we advise you to choose other directions for crossing the border, in particular, the “Reni” car border crossing point,” said the DPSU.

Six trucks with cargo were engulfed in flames, another three dozen trucks were damaged. As the above-mentioned Oleg Kiper writes, the air defense forces worked extremely hard and most of the drones were shot down, but the port infrastructure was still hit, as a result of which “two men, truck drivers, were injured. One of them was given medical assistance on the spot, the other with severe injured hands. The building of the checkpoint, warehouses, about 30 trucks, 6 vans were damaged. Firefighters put out the fires.”

In the Reni district of the Odesa region, there are two ferries crossing the 900-meter long Danube river at the ferry crossing Orlivka – Isaccia (Romania), transporting cargo, passenger, passenger vehicles and refugees on foot.

From here to the Romanian coast is a little less than a kilometer, and there an explosive wave swept over the homes of local residents. Photo: MPP Orlivka, July 2023.

The crossing capacity per day reaches up to 1000 passengers and up to 500 units of transport, of which almost 150 are cargo and 350 are passenger cars.