Russia Intensifies Strikes on Ukraine’s Main Port City Odessa Targeting Logistics, Power, Drone Forces, and Supplies

The Russian Armed Forces has significantly intensified strikes on Odessa, as Russian ground forces move towards the key Ukrainian port city. "The Palma, Raben-Ukraine, and Odessa-22 logistics centres were hit in the city of Odessa. These centres held cargoes meant for the Ukrainian army," the Russian Defence Ministry reported, adding that Russian forces struck a drone production facility and a Ukrainian missile depot in the city. "A facility for the production on unmanned aerial vehicles and their components, and a depot holding the Ukrainian army’s missile and artillery weapons and munitions were hit in the city of Odessa," it observed.

Elaborating on broader strikes on Odessa, the Defence Ministry reported: “A New Post logistics centre holding and distributing cargoes for the Ukrainian army, as well as drone production facilities were struck in the settlement of Ilyuchevka in the Odessa Region.”Russian forces also hit a logistics centre in Usatovo, as well as the Bloom logistics centre in Teplodar holding cargoes for the Ukrainian Army. Russian forces also struck a dry cargo ship at the port of Odessa, as well as two power substations feeding port and logistics infrastructure in the Odessa and Nikolayev Regions, 

Russian forces have continued strikes on railway infrastructure facilities used to transport military cargoes from Europe, with the ministry elaborating: "Strikes continued against railway infrastructure facilities in western Ukraine that are used to transport military cargoes from European countries.” Russian forces have also targeted temporary deployment sites of Ukrainian troops in the Zaporozhye Region, with the ministry having released video footage of dropping FAB-250 aviation bombs striking one such position near the settlement of Preobrazhenka in the Zaporozhye Region. Radar control data confirmed a successful strike. 

In late August it was reported that Russia’s rapidly expanding use of the S8000 Banderol cruise missile was contributing to a dramatic deterioration in the security alone Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, with repeated attacks increasingly disrupting commercial shipping and port operations. The missile combines capabilities normally associated with substantially more expensive cruise missiles, with an emphasis on relatively inexpensive mass production. A significant expansion in the production of multiple missile types, most notably missiles for the Iskander-M ballistic missile system, combined with procurements from North Korea, have allowed Russia to intensify strikes.