23rd December 2025 – (Odesa) Russia has intensified its assault on Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, triggering widespread power outages and placing vital maritime infrastructure at risk.
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba described the bombardment as “systematic”, warning last week that the centre of gravity in the war “may have shifted towards Odesa”. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the sustained strikes were aimed at choking Ukraine’s access to sea logistics.
Earlier in December, President Vladimir Putin threatened to cut Ukraine off from the sea in retaliation for Ukrainian drone attacks on tankers belonging to Russia’s so‑called “shadow fleet” in the Black Sea — a term used for hundreds of vessels deployed to circumvent Western sanctions imposed after the 2022 full‑scale invasion.
On Monday evening, missiles struck port facilities in Odesa, damaging a civilian ship, according to the regional governor. It was the latest in a barrage of attacks that has left the region facing rolling blackouts for days and caused multiple casualties. On Sunday night, strikes cut electricity to 120,000 residents and ignited a major port fire that destroyed dozens of containers of flour and vegetable oil. Last week, a ballistic missile attack on Pivdennyi port, east of Odesa, killed eight people and injured at least 30. Another strike days earlier killed a woman travelling with her three children and briefly severed the region’s only bridge link between Ukraine and Moldova.
Zelensky signalled that a new air force commander for the region will be appointed soon, following the dismissal of Dmytro Karpenko at the weekend.
Long a cornerstone of Ukraine’s economy, Odesa — the country’s third‑largest city after Kyiv and Kharkiv — has gained even greater strategic importance as ports in Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Mykolaiv remain inaccessible under Russian occupation. Despite the war, Ukraine continues to rank among the world’s leading exporters of wheat and maize. Since August 2023, Odesa has served as the launch point for a crucial maritime corridor that skirts the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria before reaching Turkey, enabling grain exports to continue.
Zelensky, who has accused Russia of “sowing chaos” in Odesa, reiterated that “without pressure on Russia, they have no intention of genuinely ending their aggression”.
His remarks came as the latest round of US‑led diplomacy concluded in Miami. US officials held separate meetings with Ukrainian and Russian delegations, issuing upbeat statements but showing no tangible progress towards ending Moscow’s nearly four‑year war. US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said he and Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov had worked to “align positions” on a 20‑point peace proposal tabled by Kyiv earlier this month, an alternative to a US plan presented in November that was viewed as more favourable to Moscow.
Even before Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev returned from Florida, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said revisions by Europeans and Ukrainians would not improve the chances of reaching a settlement. On Monday, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov accused EU states of seeking to derail potential Russia–US agreements on Ukraine and of trying to block any improvement in bilateral relations. He added that Europe was “possessed by a maniacal” fear of a Russian attack and said Moscow was prepared to formalise, in a legal document, that it had no intention of attacking either the EU or NATO, echoing earlier comments by Putin. “We’ve never planned to [attack Europe]… we’ll put it in writing,” Putin said in November.
Russia also launched a pre‑dawn air attack on Kyiv on Tuesday. “Air defence forces are working to eliminate the threat in the sky over the capital,” the city’s military administration reported, with no immediate word on casualties or damage.
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