In Odesa, no-one is safe from Russia’s new Black Sea strikes


Men fish on a pier as black smoke rises from a vessel damaged by a Russian attack

"My crane operator, my partner, died five metres from me… The driver remained in the cabin. He also died," Svitlana Halchenko, a warehouse shift manager at Odesa port, says in a tearful interview with a local correspondent.


The 57 Russian strikes in July were the most concentrated attack series on civilian vessels in the Black Sea, with 22 missiles hitting the surface and 67 targeting port infrastructure. The monthly tally marks a sharp rise from the early stages of the conflict and underscores a new operational priority for Moscow: choking Ukraine’s maritime lifeline.


The October‑mid‑July period saw no ships in Odesa’s docks. Even commercial vessels, former grain carriers from Turkey and Ukraine, found the berths empty as crews feared the next strike. A single freighter slipped through, carrying a bulk load of grain that later sank off the coast of Odesa after a missile hit.


Oleg Grygoriuk, chair of the Marine Transport Workers Union, describes the terror: "There are a lot of veterans who already served their country, and they literally say that being in the port is more scary than being on the front line." He explains that a missile can arrive within a minute of launching from Crimea, leaving workers almost no time to seek shelter.


The UN‑brokered 2022 Black Sea Grain Initiative had opened a safe corridor for grain exports, but Russia has now shifted from blockading the ports to actively disrupting them. The Ukrainian Operation MoLoChKa, using drones to target Russian vessels, has intersected with this attack pattern, further destabilising the corridor.


Trade experts warn that Ukraine’s capacity to export grain and oilseeds has collapsed. The port’s 73 million tonnes of cargo last year, with 38 million tonnes of grain alone, now faces a halt that risks a global shortage. Volodymyr Slavinskyi of Nibulon estimates that roughly 700,000 metric tonnes of grain were lost due to the shutdown.


Beyond the docks, civilians are also caught in the crossfire. A 26‑year‑old woman on the beach was killed by shrapnel from an intercepted Russian drone, while a Ukrainian drone crashed onto a busy beach near Andrii Dudik, killing several holidaymakers. These incidents illustrate how the war’s reach extends far beyond the docks.


While Odesa’s beaches fill up for tourists and local workers, even the sound of sirens is a backdrop to the ongoing peril. Local residents craft a bleak picture: the city’s economy, its ports, and its people are all in limbo due to a war that now targets the heart of Ukraine’s trade.