Russia strikes Odesa, killing three as Black Sea battle intensifies

Russian strikes on Odesa killed three people and injured at least three more, hitting a seven-story residential building and port-related infrastructure. A civilian vessel under a Marshall Islands flag was also damaged, and rescue workers pulled three residents, including two children, from the rubble as southern Ukraine endured a fifth straight day of drone and missile fire.

Odesa’s exposure carries weight far beyond the city limits. The port handles a large share of Ukraine’s grain and other cargo exports, making it a central source of wartime revenue and a lifeline for the country’s economy. The United Nations said the Black Sea Grain Initiative had moved 32.8 million tons of grain and foodstuffs from the designated ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi before Russia ended its participation on July 17, 2023. The UN also said more than 1,000 ships left those ports during the deal. Since then, Ukraine has depended on a maritime corridor it reopened without Russia’s consent.

The fighting at sea intensified in parallel with the attack on Odesa. Robert "Madyar" Brovdi, Ukraine’s drone commander, said Ukraine had shifted its maritime drone campaign from the Sea of Azov into the Black Sea and claimed strikes on 20 Russian vessels overnight, including oil tankers, gas tankers and a tugboat. Brovdi said the earlier phase of the campaign hit 116 vessels in the Sea of Azov. Ukrainian drone forces also said they carried out other strikes in the Sea of Azov, underscoring how the waterway has become an active front rather than a rear area.

The pressure on Odesa comes as Ukrainian agricultural groups warn that the export corridor is being squeezed. Ukraine’s main farmers’ union said the country had lost about a third of its Black Sea grain-export capacity because of intensifying Russian missile and drone attacks. That reduction matters because Ukraine still relies on the Black Sea route for most of its grain and other cargo exports, and every strike on port infrastructure threatens both shipments and civilian safety in a city that remains one of the country’s most important commercial gates to the world.