Russia attacks two Ukrainian ports, damaging three Turkish-owned vessels

• Summary

• Kyiv says Russia used drones and missiles for strikes
• Three Turkish-owned vessels damaged, Ukraine’s navy says
• Moscow vowed retaliation for Kyiv’s attacks on tanker fleet
• Turkey calls for energy, sea ceasefire
• Verified video shows moment of drone attack

KYIV, Dec 12 (Reuters) – Russia attacked two Ukrainian ports on Friday, damaging three Turkish-owned vessels including a ship carrying food supplies, Ukrainian officials and one ship owner said, days after Moscow threatened to cut “Ukraine off from the sea”.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed retaliation against Kyiv’s maritime drone attacks on Moscow’s “shadow fleet” tankers thought to be used to export oil, which Kyiv says is Russia’s main source of funding for its almost four-year-old war.

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The attack on Friday came hours after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Putin that a limited ceasefire for energy facilities and ports could be beneficial.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted photos which showed a large fire burning aboard a ship in the port of Chornomorsk in Odesa region, with firefighters tackling the blaze.

“This proves once again that Russians not only fail to take the current opportunity for diplomacy seriously enough, but also continue the war precisely to destroy normal life in Ukraine,” he said.

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That vessel’s owner, Cenk Shipping, said the Cenk T vessel had been subject to attack around 1600 Ukraine time (1400 GMT).

There were no casualties among the crew, and damage was limited, it added.

Reuters verified the moment of the attack seen on a video published on X. The vessel in the clip matched Cenk T, and the cranes and buildings matched satellite imagery of the Chornomorsk port.

Fabian Hinz, research fellow for defence and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the weapon seen was a Russian Geran-2 drone in its loitering configuration.

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Russia’s defence ministry did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.

“The strike is aimed at civilian logistics and commercial shipping,” Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said.

NAVIGATION SAFETY TARGETED

Russia attacked Ukrainian ports with drones and ballistic missiles, Kuleba added.

He said that one employee of a private company had been injured in a separate attack on Odesa port, and that a cargo loader had been damaged there.

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Ukraine’s navy spokesperson told Reuters that three vessels were damaged in total, all Turkish-owned. But the spokesperson did not provide additional details.

Turkey’s foreign ministry confirmed damage in the Chornomorsk port, adding that there were no reports of injured Turkish citizens.

Reuters was able to verify the vessel by the design and name of the bow that matched file imagery of the Cenk T vessel.

“We reiterate the need for an arrangement whereby, in order to prevent escalation in the Black Sea, attacks targeting navigational safety as well as the parties’ energy and port infrastructure are suspended,” the ministry’s statement said.

The three large Black Sea ports in the Odesa region are a key economic artery for Ukraine, which is a major commodities exporter.

In addition to the attacks on Moscow’s “shadow fleet” tankers, Ukraine has ramped up pressure on Russia by hitting targets in the Caspian Sea this week, including vessels allegedly carrying military equipment and a major oil rig.

Reporting by Yuliia Dysa, Max Hunder, Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv and Ece Toksabay in Ankara; Additonal reporting by Monica Naime; Editing by Alison Williams, Kirsten Donovan, Hugh Lawson and Himani Sarkar

Turkish car ferry damaged in strike at Ukrainian port

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Johanna ChisholmBBC NewsWatch the moment a ship in Odesa is hit by an air strike

A large fire broke out on a Turkish car ferry anchored at the Ukrainian port city of Odesa after it was hit in a strike on Friday.

The company that operates the Cenk T confirmed the attack occurred at 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT) shortly after it docked at the Chornomorsk port.

Ukraine’s President Volodymr Zelensky has blamed the strike on Russia, which has not commented.

The attack came hours after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Russian President Vladimir Putin that a limited ceasefire for energy facilities and ports could be beneficial. Russia has resisted all calls for a ceasefire.

Moscow has threatened to cut “Ukraine off from the sea” in response to Kyiv’s maritime drone attacks on Russia’s “shadow fleet” tankers thought to be used to export oil – and a main source for funding the ongoing war.

Cenk Denizcilik, the company that owns the cargo ship that operates on the Karasu-Odesa route across the Black Sea, said on Friday that it had been carrying “essential food supplies” when it was hit shortly after anchoring at the Ukrainian port city.

Emergency response measures were immediately activated with the vessel’s crew, port fire brigade and assisting tugboats after a fire broke out on the forward section of the ship, the company’s statement added.

“At this stage, there are no reports of casualties or injuries among the crew,” it said.

Video footage of the attack’s aftermath, which was shared on Zelensky’s Telegram account, shows crews attempting to extinguish a large blaze on the vessel.

While condemning a series of missile attacks that Russia had carried out on the Odesa region the night before, the Ukrainian leader blamed Moscow for targeting the civilian Turkish ship, saying it “could not have any military meaning”.

Turkey’s foreign ministry said an agreement should be reached that would guarantee “the security of shipping and suspending attacks against energy and port infrastructure in order to prevent escalation in the Black Sea”.

“We once again underline the importance of urgently ending the war between Russia and Ukraine,” the ministry said.

Turkey has sought to maintain relations with the two warring countries since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

It also controls the Bosphorus Strait, which is a key passage for transporting Ukrainian grain and Russian oil out to the Mediterranean.

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Russia carried out a second round of strikes on Odesa later in the evening which damaged the port infrastructure facility, according to the region’s head of administration.

“[This] emphasises the deliberate nature of enemy strikes on the civilian infrastructure of the region,” Oleg Kiper wrote in a Telegram post.

Friday’s strikes knocked out electricity for thousands of homes in Odesa.

This comes as US President Donald Trump appears to have grown frustrated by the slow progress his administration is making in securing a deal to end the war between Ukraine and Russia.

Despite Washington’s recent diplomatic push, Kyiv and Moscow have rejected key parts of the Trump administration’s proposal.

While Ukraine is adamant that there should be security guarantees from the US and Europe in place before agreeing to an end to the war, Russia is continuing to demand territorial concessions – which Kyiv has resisted.

Russia has been making slow gains on the ground recently.

But claims it is in control of key hubs, such as the key town of Pokrovsk – a strategic point on a big road and rail artery in the eastern Donetsk region – are being denied by the Ukrainians.

And in a show of defiance on Friday, President Zelensky posted a video of himself in Kupyansk – which Moscow claimed to have captured last month.