Russia struck Odesa's port again and hit a foreign civilian ship. Russian forces attacked port infrastructure in Odesa Oblast overnight, damaging a civilian vessel flying the flag of Togo, Oleh Kiper, the head of the regional military administration, reported.
The strike hit neutral commercial shipping at a port that Russia has repeatedly attacked. Odesa is Ukraine's main gateway for seaborne trade, and Russia has struck its port infrastructure throughout the war, endangering the foreign-flagged merchant ships that dock there to move Ukrainian grain and cargo.
Four people were injured
The strike caused casualties among those at the port. Four people were injured, three of them hospitalized and one in serious condition, and all are receiving the necessary medical care, Kiper said.
Fires broke out as a result of the strike and have now been fully extinguished, Kiper said.
The target was Ukraine's trade gateway
Hitting a foreign merchant ship strikes at the heart of Ukraine's economic lifeline. Odesa's ports are how Ukraine ships its grain and imports to the world, and the foreign-flagged vessels that call there are civilian commercial traffic, not military targets.
Earlier, Ukraine’s Agriculture Ministry cut its forecast for agricultural exports in 2026–2027 by 54% after Russia's strikes on the port. The ministry now expects 29.6 million tons of agricultural exports, down from 64.4 million. Its wheat export forecast fell by 53%, from 17.6 million tons to 8.3 million tons.
The scale of the crisis triggered by Russia
In July alone, Russian strikes damaged 28 vessels traveling to or from the ports of Greater Odesa, roughly 11–12% of maritime traffic, killing 21 sailors and injuring 34, according to Andrii Klymenko of the Black Sea Strategic Studies Institute’s monitoring group.
Land and river routes cannot make up the difference. Low water levels are limiting the Danube's capacity, and there is no full substitute for Ukraine’s deep-water ports in the medium term. If the delays continue, he said, Ukraine may have to store an additional 10–12 million metric tons of grain it cannot export.
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