Odesa region ports under fire: the strike on 8 November 2023
A look back at a Russian missile strike on a merchant vessel off Pivdennyi Port, which came two days after an attack on Odesa itself.
What did a Russian missile strike on a commercial ship mean for Odesa Oblast's ports? On 8 November 2023, a missile hit a Liberian-flagged vessel as it entered the Pivdennyi Port in Odesa Oblast. One crew member was killed and four others were injured.
The ship was being used to transport iron ore to China. The attack formed part of the Russian campaign in southern Ukraine.
It came two days after Russian forces attacked the city of Odesa with drones and missiles on 6 November 2023. That assault injured at least eight people and damaged infrastructure, including the Odesa Fine Arts Museum.
Taken together, the two attacks showed the Odesa area, both its city and its port approaches, coming under repeated Russian fire in the first days of November 2023.
