Unfortunately, kamikaze drones caused damage to the port infrastructure, including warehouses, unloading equipment, and vehicles carrying grain. Ukraine’s southern command said in a statement on Telegram, a messaging app, adding that the fire had been extinguished.
Mr. Kiper said that shrapnel from explosions had wounded five people.
Russia has bombarded Odesa frequently since July, when it terminated a deal that had allowed Ukraine to ship its grain across the Black Sea from Odesa and other ports. Ukraine thwarted Moscow’s plan to seize the city early last year but, while the threat of invasion has receded, it remains a crucible of the war, not least because of its position on the Black Sea.
Ukraine has made progress in recent months in its campaign to undermine Russia’s naval dominance. In the latest example, the commander of Ukraine’s Air Force, Mykola Oleshchuk, said that his pilots had staged an airstrike late Friday on the city of Kerch in Crimea, a region occupied by Russia since 2014 and illegally annexed.
The attack damaged a small Russian missile ship, the Askold, which had been undergoing repairs at the shipyard, according to Planet Labs, a private satellite company. Russia’s ministry of defense also said that one of its ships had sustained damage.
“It’s still afloat, but the ship’s top is noticeably damaged,” said a Ukrainian naval captain, Andrii Ryzhenko, in a post on Facebook after he had analyzed the satellite images. Russia’s defense ministry said that a Ukrainian attack with 15 cruise missiles had damaged a ship in the docks at Kerch, according to RIA Novosti, a Russian state news agency.