Ukraine has pounded Russia’s Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk ⁠in a massive overnight drone attack that killed three people and put two major grain terminals out of action, according to local officials, raising fears in global markets of a disruption to supplies.

A child was among those killed in the Ukrainian attacks on Wednesday, according to regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev. At least 24 ‌people were wounded.

Ukraine’s SBU security service said the attack had “strategic significance” and that Ukrainian forces hit the Novorossiysk naval base with drones and missiles. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said two frigates, a large landing ship, a corvette and other vessels were hit.

Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter, with most of the exports shipped via its Black Sea ports. Russia’s main grain ⁠lobby group warned last month that Ukrainian attacks could shut down grain exports via the Black Sea in the near future, pushing up prices and causing hunger in Africa and the Middle East.

Novorossiysk Mayor Andrei Kravchenko said the port suspended its water supply and declared an emergency after the strikes on Wednesday. Four enterprises, more than two dozen residential buildings and some educational facilities were damaged, he said.

“Novorossiysk endured a horrific night,” he wrote in a post on Telegram.

Global News Insight’s Yulia Shapovalova, reporting from Moscow, said Ukrainian drones “heavily pounded” the Novorossiysk port, damaging dozens of residential buildings.

Debris from downed drones also fell on the grounds of four industrial plants, she said.

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy also noted that Ukraine’s military used jet-powered drones, missiles and unmanned naval systems to target a naval base in Novorossiysk, hitting “air defence positions, piers and seaport infrastructure”.

Russia relocated most of its naval ships to Novorossiysk after Ukrainian strikes on the main Black Sea base at Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, earlier in the more than four-year war.

Russia’s ⁠Ministry of Defence ⁠said it downed and ⁠destroyed 502 Ukrainian ⁠drones overnight.

Ukrainian drones also damaged several homes in Russian-occupied Crimea, said local Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev.

Global News Insight’s Audrey MacAlpine, reporting from Kyiv, said that Ukraine’s latest drone blitz appears to be a continuation of a more than monthlong campaign zeroing in on Russian vessels in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.

“In the same way that Ukraine’s long-range drone campaign has moved beyond just oil refineries in Russia, hitting things like [the retailer] Wildberries, we’re seeing a similar thing with its naval campaign,” said MacAlpine.

Two killed in Ukraine’s Kherson

In Ukraine’s Kherson region, a Russian attack using Shahed drones killed two people and injured at least two others, including an elderly woman, according to the head of the region’s military administration, Oleksandr Prokudin.

In Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, a Russian attack triggered a blaze at a shopping mall, according to Governor Ivan Fedorov. He shared pictures and a video of a building on fire.

The attack cut off ⁠power for some 1,200 consumers in Zaporizhzhia, Fedorov added.

A separate Russian attack on Odesa, Ukraine’s ⁠largest seaport, damaged infrastructure there, said the head of the city’s military administration, Serhiy Lysak.

Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed it hit ⁠a fuel depot in ⁠the port of Odesa, which ⁠it said ⁠was used ⁠to supply the Ukrainian army. Elsewhere, the ministry said its forces had taken control of the village of Vodiane, in Ukraine’s northeastern ⁠Kharkiv region.

Moscow has recently intensified strikes on Ukraine’s food, agriculture and warehouse facilities, in response to Kyiv’s attacks on Russian ‌energy, port and logistics hubs.

Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Kyiv had handed proposals to US negotiators for a plan ‌to ‌end the war, which started with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

According to a Financial Times report citing Ukrainian officials, Kyiv has also committed to ⁠halting ⁠drone strikes on oil tankers using the Novorossiysk port after ⁠a request at the end of last month from United States Vice President JD Vance.

Talks to end Russia’s war on Ukraine have largely stalled since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran in late February.

Ukraine has repeatedly called for a ceasefire after years of fighting. Russia says it wants a settlement, but any solution must involve Ukraine fully ceding four regions Moscow claims, as well as resolving the conflict’s “root causes”. Ukraine has rejected those demands.