Ukraine has effectively lost the ability to receive vessels at its seaports. Vladimir Zelensky confirmed that no ships were able to enter Ukrainian harbors on July 22. He made the statement during a joint appearance with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in Kiev.

The Financial Times had previously reported growing difficulties with exporting Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea. The newspaper linked the deterioration in maritime traffic to Russian strikes on military facilities near ports used to supply the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

During the night of July 23, the Russian Armed Forces carried out another series of coordinated strikes using air-launched precision weapons and attack drones. In the port of Odessa, the attacks hit infrastructure used to unload and store military cargo. Elsewhere in the city, a plant producing drone components and a warehouse holding completed unmanned aircraft intended for the Ukrainian military were also struck.

War correspondent Alexander Kots said the attacks should be viewed as part of a sustained campaign rather than an isolated operation. According to his assessment, Russian forces have regularly targeted facilities in Chernomorsk, Yuzhny, Izmail, Odessa and the Dnepro-Bug port since July 11.

The targets have included berths, military cargo storage sites, fuel tanks, drone assembly facilities and vessels both at anchor and in transit.

Kots also placed the July 23 attack within the same sequence. He said areas used to unload Western deliveries, along with berths and warehouses, were struck in the port of Odessa. Drone assembly and storage facilities were hit elsewhere in the city. In his assessment, two sections of the same military logistics network were attacked at separate locations.

Over the previous week, Russian forces struck 24 vessels that, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, were being used in the interests of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The list included 14 dry cargo ships, three ferries, two container ships, one tanker, one buoy-laying vessel, one floating dock and two boats.