Odesa in Kremlin’s Sights Again: A Week of Attacks on Port Facilities

Three detonations shook the windows of the houses in Odesa’s historic center on Monday morning – just minutes after the Telegram channels had announced an incoming Russian ballistic missile alert across the city.

Eight people were injured and one person died as a result of the strike which presumably targeted port infrastructure, according to the first official statement from the Odesa regional military authority. All of the injured and killed were port workers. There was also damage to the port infrastructure, including a warehouse with tons of grain stocks.

This escalation of attacks is an attempt by the Russians to discourage cargo traffic, which has resumed at the pace it had before the large-scale Russian invasion a year ago, reviving the export of Ukrainian agricultural and mineral products. However, the Russian fleet has shied away from attacking merchant ships at sea, likely to avoid inflating maritime insurance, which would also penalize the Russian Federation’s exports through the Black Sea. 

Two civilian ships in the port at the time of the attack were damaged, including the NS Moon, under the flag of Belize, and the bulk carrier Optima, under the flag of Palau. Just one week before, the Optima had been damaged by another ballistic missile attack. 

Monday’s destruction is the latest in a series of attacks that have hit both Odesa and the region near the Black Sea, aiming for port and logistics infrastructure. After sporadic attacks in September, the area has already come under fire several times in October:

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• Oct. 5 – A 100 m² storage building in Odesa was attacked on the road to Kyiv, where a fire broke out. There were no deaths and only one injured.
• Oct. 7 – Port infrastructure was attacked with a ballistic missile, hitting a civilian ship flying the flag of Palau. A 60-year-old Ukrainian, an employee of a private cargo handling company, died and five other foreign sailors were injured.
• Oct. 8 – A civilian building was hit and a fire destroyed a three-story apartment building in the port city of Chornomorsk. Five people were injured, not seriously.
• Oct. 9 – The Russians targeted port infrastructure again in Chermonorsk and hit a civilian merchant ship with the flag of Panama. As a result of the attack, nine Ukrainian citizens died and eight were injured, four of them in serious condition.
• Oct. 10 – A mushroom food plant in Odesa was hit, causing a two-story workers’ home to collapse. Three people died under the debris of the building, including a 43-year-old woman, a 22-year-old boy, and a 16-year-old girl. Ten people were injured, four of whom are in serious condition.
• Oct. 14 – Odesa’s port was attacked. One person died, three were injured.

Over the past three months, the Russians have carried out nearly 60 attacks on port infrastructure in southern Ukraine, according to Oleksiy Kuleba, the Minister of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine. The strikes caused damage to nearly 300 port facilities, 177 vehicles, and 22 civilian ships. A total of 79 people were injured, including port workers, logistics techs, and ship crew members.