By Bloomberg News
Ukraine attacked Russia’s biggest Black Sea port of Novorossiysk and surrounding areas, threatening a further squeeze on commodity flows from the region.
Ukraine’s military forces hit the port overnight, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram statement. The Russian naval base and its military facilities, as well as an oil terminal, were attacked in the strike, he said.
“Fires were recorded on the territory of the naval base, as well as the fuel oil terminal,” Ukraine’s General Staff said in a separate Telegram statement. The office of the Novorossiysk port captain confirmed the overnight attacks on port infrastructure in an emailed comment to Bloomberg.
Russia and Ukraine have stepped up attacks in the Black Sea in recent months, disrupting commodity flows ranging from oil products to grain.
Russia’s state-run oil-pipeline operator Transneft PJSC, which runs the oil-product and the crude oil terminals in Novorossiysk, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Satellite images released by NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System taken earlier Wednesday show heat anomalies — likely indicating fires — dating back 6-12 hours in areas where some grain facilities and the fuel-oil terminal are located.
Separately, the Seaviolet tanker, which was loading crude oil at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal near Novorossiysk, suffered minor damage from falling debris after a drone was intercepted above the vessel, the ship’s operator Thenamaris (Ships Management) Inc. said in an emailed comment to Bloomberg.
“The vessel sustained only minor superficial paint damage, with no impact on her structural integrity or operational capability,” Thenamaris said. “Cargo operations were completed shortly thereafter and the vessel safely departed the port,” it said.
The vessel loaded a non-sanctioned Kazakh oil cargo at CPC’s mooring three, according to a person familiar with the matter. The mooring itself appears undamaged, the person said. The CPC on Russia’s Black Sea coast is the single-largest export route for crude oil from Kazakhstan, and the Central Asian nation has limited alternative export routes for its barrels.
CPC’s press office declined to comment.
Russian attacks on Black Sea ports in Ukraine’s Greater Odesa had halted at least half of the nation’s grain exports, according to Ukraine’s Agriculture Ministry.
Russia, meanwhile, suspended the floating export duty on wheat, barley and corn through the end of 2026 as Ukrainian attacks disrupted shipments through the Black and Azov seas, affecting routes used for more than 70% of exports.
The attacks have also slashed Russia’s crude oil exports via its Black Sea ports, forcing the nation to redirect some volumes to its Baltic facilities. Kazakhstan cut its outlook for 2026 oil output by 2 million tons following earlier attacks on CPC.
Since late August, Russia has ramped up the frequency of its air assaults on Ukraine, particularly Kyiv, using jet-powered drones that are harder to intercept. The Kremlin’s new tactic has compounded Kyiv’s difficulties, increasing the risk of civilian casualties and disrupting public services.
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