Russia's Defense Ministry announced on Friday that its forces struck three dry cargo vessels overnight, accusing them of ferrying military cargo on behalf of Kiev. According to the ministry, drone strikes hit the vessels as part of an ongoing campaign against naval assets being used to support Ukraine's armed forces.
Ukrainian officials recorded dozens of Russian strikes on vessels and port infrastructure in July alone, a dramatic jump from the relatively low, single-digit-per-month pace seen through most of 2025.
The result has been a near-total freeze on foreign shipping into Ukraine's Black Sea ports, with the vast majority of commercial operators suspending calls altogether, in a blow to Ukrainian export revenue estimated in the tens of billions of dollars annually.
But the targeting runs in both directions. Ukraine has run its own sustained campaign against what it says is Russia's "shadow fleet," tankers and cargo vessels allegedly used to circumvent Western sanctions on Russian oil exports.
Ukrainian drone attacks, largely aimed at ships' bridges and engine compartments, have damaged well over a hundred such vessels across the Black Sea and Sea of Azov since the start of the campaign. The pressure has been significant enough that Russia has had to suspend nighttime vessel traffic at its major Novorossiysk terminal and briefly halt transit through the Kerch Strait.
Separately, Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defense systems intercepted 203 Ukrainian drones overnight between August 6 and 7, across a wide swath of Russian territory, including the Black Sea itself, Crimea, and border regions such as Belgorod, Bryansk, and Kursk, as well as more distant regions like Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, and the Perm Territory.
Russian air defenses shot down more than 21,000 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory in July, with the highest single-day totals recorded on July 24 and July 25, at 937 and 1,060, respectively.
Most of the intercepted drones targeted the European part of Russia. That figure adds to the at least 63,993 drones Russian air defenses reported downing over Russian territory in the first half of 2026.