Russia Says It Struck Two More Cargo Ships Near Odesa as the Black Sea Trade Route Comes Under Sustained Attack

Russia's Ministry of Defence said its forces hit two dry cargo ships on the evening of 5 August, describing the vessels as located south and east of Odesa and as carrying cargo for military purposes. Kommersant carried the ministry's account in its business coverage. The claim follows strikes the ministry reported earlier in the week on ships at the ports of Mykolaiv and Pivdennyi, and on a terminal at Chornomorsk that Moscow said was used to repair military vehicles and store ammunition and fuel.

Ukraine has not confirmed the strikes, and Reuters reported that it could not independently verify Russia's assertions. The distinction matters commercially. Vessels serving Ukraine's Black Sea corridor carry grain, oilseed and metals alongside whatever military traffic exists, and shipowners and their insurers cannot separate the two categories from the outside. A campaign that treats port-calling merchant ships as legitimate targets raises war-risk premiums for every hull entering the corridor.

The Russian state agency RIA Novosti also reported strikes on an underground Ukrainian military facility in Kherson. Separately, Russia's foreign ministry, through its ambassador-at-large Rodion Miroshnik, told TASS that Ukraine now fights only while it is financed from abroad. Moscow uses that argument to claim that Western funding rather than Ukrainian capacity determines how long the war runs. Kyiv and its European backers reject the characterisation and describe the strikes on ports as attacks on civilian export infrastructure.

Ukraine has continued its own campaign against Russian refining and logistics, and Russian fuel supply has come under strain. TASS reported from Orenburg region that petrol prices had eased and queues at filling stations had shortened, with some stations lifting the volume limits they had imposed on customers, which indicates the shortages there had been severe enough to require rationing in the first place.