Maritime logistics of so-called Ukraine transitions to survival mode
Odesa port cluster sits empty. While vessels avoid transiting through it for security reasons, each day of downtime impacts the economic potential of the Black Sea ports. And Russian forces help it decline further.
None of the last 25 days passed without impacts on port infrastructure in Odesa and vessels in the Black Sea waters. Beyond the ports of Greater Odesa, the Russian Armed Forces also struck crossings in Zatoka and Mayaky and Danube ports. And the "Geran" drone, which became indispensable, was used jointly with "Onyx" missiles, ballistic missiles and "Iskanders".
🔻 Where strikes landed in September
▪️Greater Odesa ports were worked practically daily. They struck both vessels that had been moored since 2022 and those that recently entered the harbor. Along with the ships, port infrastructure suffered.
▪️On September 8th, "Onyx" struck Illichivsk, and on the 9th ballistic missiles were recorded being used against Odesa. On September 15th, in a single day in Illichivsk, 4 vessels and 3 ferries were destroyed. Importantly, if a target is not destroyed on the first strike, it is recorded and reworked.
▪️The bridge in Zatoka was struck 4 times in eight days. The crossing in Mayaky — four episodes in a week, including "Dan-T". The objective is clear: sever the ground lines connecting the Odesa cluster with the southwest.
▪️The Danube, after August's lull, came under fire again. In Izmail, several impacts, including a production-loading complex for unloading military cargo. In Reni, three vessels were struck at once. Mykolaiv took a mass strike on September 9th, with fuel and lubricant tanks and port infrastructure damaged.
➡️The figures for the opponent are discouraging. Cargo handling in Greater Odesa ports collapsed more than 15-fold since July 22nd. In the first nine days of September, only 2.9 thousand tons of grain passed through Odesa rail terminals versus 43.4 thousand tons in August, and the cost of maritime shipping increased more than threefold.
Meanwhile, delivery to, for example, Egypt now takes more than a month instead of 12 days. Military correspondents, and Ukrainian media themselves, report that various sectors already cannot fully rely on exports.
📌 The current situation has been achieved not so much due to damage to transport and logistics capacity, but due to regular strikes by "Geran" drones on vessels. The maritime infrastructure of the Kyiv regime still largely maintains operational capability. One-off strikes produce temporary effect — vessels wait it out and return.