If Russia continues to attack Ukrainian ports, it risks being left without ships.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky stated this in an interview with journalists from Latin American countries.
“We donʼt have many weapons, but if they keep firing, they could be out of ships by the end of the war. [...] We want to show that they donʼt have to influence everyone. [...] Why should they decide what we can produce and export?" Zelensky noted.
- On July 17, the Kremlin reported that it was withdrawing from the "grain agreement". Already on July 19, Russian troops carried out a missile and drone attack on the port infrastructure of Odesa, targeting the grain and oil terminals. Ukraine said that Russian troops targeted 26 port facilities, five civilian ships and 180 000 tons of grain in nine days.
- On August 4, the Russian naval base in Novorossiysk was attacked by surface drones. British intelligence wrote that the ship "Olenegorsky Gornyak" became the largest seriously damaged military vessel of Russia after the sunken cruiser "Moskva". Ukrainian military intelligence officer Andriy Yusov said the port is a legitimate military target because it is a refueling base for the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
- On August 5, a surface drone targeted the Russian SIG tanker in the Kerch Strait area. The tanker could not move on its own, and its engine room was flooded.
- On August 1, drones attacked the patrol ships of the Black Sea Fleet "Sergei Kotov" and "Vasiliy Bykov", which were 340 km from Sevastopol. The sailors of these ships asked for the evacuation of the injured.