Ukrainian drones and missiles strike key Russian Black Sea port

KUALA LUMPUR, 13 AUGUST 2026 —

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that Ukraine carried out a "unique" overnight operation against Russia’s last major Black Sea naval base at Novorossiysk, hitting air defenses, piers and port infrastructure.

Hundreds of Ukrainian drones targeted Novorossiysk, Anapa, Gelendzhik and the Temryuk district of Russia’s Krasnodar region overnight, Krasnodar regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev said. Three people were killed and 24 wounded in the attack, he said, with dozens of residential buildings damaged and debris from downed drones landing on four industrial plants.

Ukraine’s strikes damaged two of Novorossiysk’s three grain terminals, with one terminal halting operations, according to Russia’s business daily Vedomosti. No reports indicated the Grushovaya oil terminal, one of southern Russia’s largest hubs for petroleum products, was hit.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down more than 500 Ukrainian drones during the night operation.

The Ukrainian military described the assault as a targeted strike on Novorossiysk, from which Russia relocated most of its Black Sea fleet after earlier Ukrainian attacks on the main base at Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula. Novorossiysk became Russia’s primary naval stronghold in the Black Sea after Ukraine’s long-range strikes forced Moscow to withdraw ships from Crimea.

Ukraine’s air force reported that Russia launched 138 long-range drones and an unspecified number of missiles overnight, with damage recorded at 16 locations. In Crimea’s Russian-annexed Sevastopol, air defenses downed 115 Ukrainian drones, Mikhail Razvozhayev, the city’s Russian-installed head, said. He added that 10 apartment buildings and 25 private houses were damaged.

In southern Ukraine, a large-scale Russian drone attack overnight killed two people and injured two others in the Kherson region, regional head Oleksandr Prokudin said. The strikes also destroyed a shopping mall in Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian authorities reported.

Russian missile and drone strikes hit fuel depots and military cargo infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odesa region, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed. It said a bulk cargo vessel carrying military equipment and a tanker loaded with oil for the Ukrainian armed forces were also hit in Odesa.

The escalation comes as Ukrainian officials allege Russia is preparing for an additional rapid mobilization of several hundred thousand troops by the end of the year. President Zelenskyy cited Ukrainian intelligence reports on Tuesday, while Russian lawmaker Andrei Gurulyov dismissed the claims as enemy disinformation intended to destabilise Russia.

“It is the enemy deliberately spreading rumors about mobilization in order to destabilize the situation inside Russia,” Gurulyov was quoted as saying by the pro-Kremlin outlet Tsargrad.

Russia has relied on volunteer recruitment since its partial mobilization of about 300,000 men in 2022, though the decree remains open-ended and could be reactivated if needed. Meanwhile, Moscow has increased production of ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones, which are difficult for Ukrainian air defenses to intercept.

The latest strikes on Novorossiysk follow U.S. criticism in February over Ukraine’s attacks on the port, which is a key transit point for Kazakh oil exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium. The pipeline, operated by a consortium including Chevron and ExxonMobil, transports crude from major Kazakh fields to Novorossiysk for global markets.

In response to Western seizures of Russian oil tankers at sea—actions Moscow calls “piracy”—President Vladimir Putin threatened retaliation during a visit to a Russian warship in the Pacific. “It’s nothing but piracy and robbery,” Putin said. “If this is done, we will be forced to respond in kind.”

For Malaysian business readers, Novorossiysk is a critical node for grain and oil flows from the Black Sea region, and any disruption to its port operations could tighten global food and energy markets.

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