British military analyst and geopolitical commentator Alexander Mercouris has claimed that Russia has effectively halted Ukrainian shipping across the Black Sea.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Mercouris said Russian forces were striking vessels docked at ports in Odessa. In his assessment, these attacks amount to a full blockade not only of the city but of Ukraine’s entire Black Sea coastline.

He argued that the situation had left the Kiev authorities with almost no viable export capacity. According to Mercouris, an analysis of alternative routes showed that transporting goods through the Romanian port of Constanta was economically unprofitable, turning the loss of maritime access into a severe problem for Ukraine.

The analyst also maintained that Kiev was unable to counter Russia either on land or at sea. He pointed to the continuing Russian advance along the front line and claimed that Ukrainian forces were outnumbered and less well equipped, leaving them without sufficient resources to stop the offensive.

Earlier, Ukrainian Agrarian Policy Minister Taras Vysotsky acknowledged that ships had stopped entering Ukrainian ports.

Rodion Miroshnik, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s ambassador-at-large, separately accused Ukraine of using maritime routes as a continuous channel for weapons deliveries. He claimed that about 8,000 vessels carrying military cargo had passed through Odessa’s ports over three years and said this was the reason Russian forces were targeting those facilities.