Three Killed in Overnight Russian and Ukrainian Attacks on Port Cities

Updated by Faith Barbara N Ruhinda at 1115 EAT on Wednesday 12 August 2026

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged overnight drone attacks, with three people reported killed in the two countries, according to regional officials.

In Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack on the Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk overnight Tuesday into Wednesday killed a child and injured another child and a woman, according to Mayor Andrei Kravchenko.

The attack also damaged dozens of buildings, including residential homes, officials said.

In Ukraine, Russian drone strikes on the southern city of Kherson killed two people and injured two others, according to local authorities.

The overnight attacks come amid continued exchanges of drone strikes between Russia and Ukraine, with both sides increasingly targeting infrastructure and areas far from the front line. A Ukrainian strike also damaged a grain terminal in Novorossiysk, forcing it to suspend operations while the extent of the damage was assessed.

Drone strikes also damaged the Novorossiysk grain terminal, according to its owner, Demetra Holding.

“Novorossiysk endured a horrific night,” Mayor Andrei Kravchenko wrote in a Telegram post.

In the wider Krasnodar region, where Novorossiysk is located, eight people were injured, according to regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian drones damaged several homes in Russian-occupied Crimea, according to local officials. Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev also reported damage in the area.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its air defences shot down or destroyed 502 Ukrainian drones overnight.

In Ukraine, a Russian attack involving Shahed drones killed two people and injured at least two others, including an elderly woman, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration.

In the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, a Russian attack sparked a fire at a shopping mall, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov, who shared photographs and video showing a building engulfed in flames.

Fedorov said the attack also disrupted electricity supplies to about 1,200 consumers in Zaporizhzhia.

A separate Russian attack on Odesa, Ukraine’s largest seaport, damaged port infrastructure, according to Serhiy Lysak, head of the city’s military administration.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces struck a fuel depot at the port of Odesa, which it claimed was used to supply the Ukrainian military. The claim could not be independently verified.

The latest strikes come amid an intensification of attacks by both sides on infrastructure and logistics facilities. Moscow has increasingly targeted Ukrainian food, agricultural and warehouse facilities, while Kyiv has carried out attacks on Russian energy, port and logistics infrastructure.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Kyiv had submitted proposals to US negotiators as part of efforts to end Russia’s war against Ukraine, which began with Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The details of the proposals were not immediately disclosed.

According to Ukrainian officials quoted by The Financial Times, Kyiv has also agreed to halt drone strikes on oil tankers using Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk following a request from US Vice President JD Vance.

The request was made during a July 31 call between Vance and Zelenskyy, with Washington concerned that attacks on vessels carrying non-Russian crude were disrupting oil supplies and affecting international markets.

Efforts to negotiate an end to the war have largely stalled in recent months, with US attention also focused on the conflict involving Iran. Previous rounds of negotiations have failed to produce a lasting ceasefire or peace agreement.

Ukraine has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and negotiations to end the fighting.

Russia has also said it wants a settlement, but Moscow has maintained that any agreement must address what it calls the conflict’s “root causes” and has demanded that Ukraine recognise Russian control over territories it claims, including four Ukrainian regions.

Kyiv has rejected Russia’s territorial demands and has continued to call for a negotiated settlement that respects Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

-Aljazeera

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