Russia steps up attacks on Ukrainian ports

Russia attacked two Ukrainian towns on the Black Sea coast today, killing three people, officials said, as Moscow ramps up pressure on key Ukrainian trade routes.

Three foreign-flagged civilian ships were damaged in a Russian drone attack on port infrastructure in the southern city of Mykolaiv, the regional prosecutor's office said.

In one of the attacks, carried out early this morning, two Ukrainian citizens who were on a foreign ship were killed.

Another man has been killed in a Russian attack on Odessa, Ukraine's largest port, local authorities said.

Attacks disrupt grain deliveries

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces had targeted port facilities in Odessa and Chornomorsk overnight.

Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukrainian maritime export routes during the war, but the strikes have intensified in recent weeks and are aimed at deep-sea ports through which much of the export of grain and other goods, crucial to Ukraine's war economy, takes place.

Ukraine's seaports administration said on Thursday that Russia had repeatedly targeted Ukrainian ports and civilian ships in July, killing 11 people, including port workers and foreign crew members.

According to traders and analysts, the attacks led to a partial suspension of grain shipments and an almost complete halt in grain purchases at port terminals.

A Russian missile attack on an apartment building in Odessa late Thursday killed two people and injured several others, local authorities said.

"It's never been like this before. There are so many airstrikes - so many. It's almost like one warning follows another," Odessa resident Victoria told Reuters.

Ukraine, on the other hand, has continued a campaign aimed at disrupting Russian military logistics and isolating Crimea, which Russia annexed. The commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert Brovdy, said that Ukrainian forces hit 12 more Russian vessels in the Black Sea on Friday.

This, he said, brings the total number of vessels affected in the Azov and Black Seas this month to 159.

The Ukrainian military announced that it carried out an attack on a Russian oil refinery in the Yaroslavl region yesterday.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Army stated on the Telegram app that the attack caused a fire at the Slavneft-JANOS refinery.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that Russian forces have hit 24 vessels used by the Ukrainian military over the past week.