Commercial ship traffic has ground to a halt at Ukraine's main Black Sea export ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhny. According to MarineTraffic, which provides vessel tracking data, as of July 23, no commercial ships were present at these three ports.
Ukraine's Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, Taras Vysotskyi, reported that shipping companies temporarily stopped working with the country's Black Sea ports as of July 22. Vysotskyi stated that the decision was made for security reasons.
Danish shipping giant Maersk also announced that it has temporarily suspended its connection service to Ukraine via Chornomorsk due to the current conditions. The company stated that import cargo destined for Chornomorsk will be redirected to Romania's Port of Constanta, and export bookings can be cancelled free of charge or the loading port can be changed to Constanta.
Russia's Defense Ministry stated that the recent attacks on Odesa and Chornomorsk targeted port infrastructure, warehouses and ships that it claimed were used to transport military equipment and fuel to the Ukrainian army.
While the Ukrainian side argues that the attacks targeted commercial maritime transport and agricultural exports, the Russian side claims that facilities used for military purposes were struck. The ports in question are among Ukraine's main export hubs, through which it delivers agricultural products, primarily grain, to world markets.
Ukraine has also recently intensified its attacks on ships and port infrastructure that it says Russia uses for logistics activities in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
