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The port of Odessa in Ukraine now looks almost deserted following Russian strikes over the summer, a member of the region’s pro-Russian underground resistance told TASS on September 5.
“The Odessa port now looks almost deserted compared with what it was like in June. After the latest Russian strikes, the berths are no longer operational as major shipping companies have left,” he said.
The resistance member stressed that Russian strikes targeted only dry cargo ships “used to transport dual-use goods, as well as fuel storage tanks intended for military purposes.”
Earlier in the day, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced in two separate statements that it had struck two dry cargo ships off the shores of the Odessa region, including one carrying military-technical equipment supplied by Western countries to Kyiv forces.
The ministry also released video footage showing “Geran-4 Seeker” jet-powered one-way attack drones attacking a dry cargo ship in the port of Odessa, and two others in the port of Chernomorsk, located within the same region. All three vessels were hit.
TASS reported earlier, citing Russian MoD data, that Russian forces had hit more than 150 commercial vessels and patrol boats at Ukrainian ports and in the Black Sea over the summer.
For Ukraine, the systematic silencing of Odessa—a shipping hub that traditionally handles roughly 90% of the nation’s seaborne grain—translates into a quiet, grinding crisis across the country’s agricultural heartland.
With commercial insurers pulling back and war-risk premiums soaring, major carriers have effectively frozen operations along the coast.
Grain elevators that once buzzed with round-the-clock export activity are now reportedly choking under an unprecedented domestic backlog, forcing farmers to resort to storing millions of tons of freshly harvested wheat in temporary plastic bags lining their fields.
While Kyiv has scrambled to reroute shipments through shallow Danube ports and congested western rail lines, those overland alternatives lack the sheer logistical muscle to replace deep-water transport.
The resulting bottleneck has driven local crop prices down to a fraction of global market rates, leaving producers struggling to cover basic operating costs as the autumn planting season approaches.
The campaign against ports in Odessa started as a response to Ukraine escalating strikes against commercial vessels heading to and from Russian Black Sea ports. Like most other escalatory policies adopted by Kyiv recently, this has backfired badly.
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