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Major Russian grain export terminals hit in Ukraine Black Sea port attack
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A "massive" Ukrainian drone and missile strike on Russia's port of Novorossiysk has damaged two major grain export terminals and hit the last big Russian naval base on the Black Sea, reports say.Three people, including an eight-year-old child, were killed and another 24 injured in the overnight attack, local officials said.Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had launched rockets, jet and naval drones in a "unique operation" to strike the Russian base, although he did not mention grain terminals being hit.Ukraine's military later said four Russian warships, including two frigates, were hit. Russia has not commented on the issue."The occupying fleet and all the infrastructure that supports it will not be safe as long as Russian aggression continues," Zelensky said in a post on social media. Most of Russia's Black Sea fleet is docked in Novorossiysk - one of the largest ports in Russia - after it was forced to vacate its former home base of Sevastopol, in the Russia-occupied Crimean peninsula, which was too exposed to Ukrainian attacks.The attack follows an uptick in the exchange of strikes in the Black Sea this summer, after a period of relative calm.In an interview with CNN, Zelensky said that Ukraine needs a tenth of the current US stockpile of interceptor missiles to stop all Russian ballistic missile attacks.He added that 5% of the stockpile would get Ukraine through winter. "This year we have two and a half times less interceptors than we had in 2025," the Ukrainian president said. "Russia has two times more ballistic missiles per month than they had before."A major grain trading company confirmed to Russia's TASS news agency that its terminal had been hit in the attack on Wednesday, while another told Reuters and Russian outlet RBK the same.The Russian agriculture ministry announced on Wednesday that it was working to redirect cargo flows to ports in the Baltic and Caspian Seas as well as land routes. It did not make any reference to Ukraine's attacks but said it was "taking into account current logistical constraints".Repeated explosions reportedly rang out over Novorossiysk throughout the night as air defences shot down aerial objects. An emergency situation was declared in the city on Wednesday, after the barrage of drones struck areas around the port and damaged pipelines, suspending water supply for the city. Elsewhere in the region a man was killed by drone debris, regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said. Several locations in the surrounding Krasnodar region were also struck by "several hundred drones" overnight, Kondratyev added, with dozens of buildings damaged, including homes. For its part, Moscow launched aerial overnight strikes which killed at least 11 civilians in Ukraine between Tuesday and Wednesday. The majority were killed when Russia hit the southern city of Zaporizhzhia with ballistic missiles and glide bombs.Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The last remaining sea route out of Ukraine has been badly affected by several deadly Russian strikes on cargo ships and the port of Odesa, through which Moscow seeks to put off foreign companies from trading with Ukraine. In July, the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB) reported a 23% decrease in exports.Meanwhile, Ukraine has grown increasingly adept at carrying out long-range strikes on Russian territory. Its recent attacks on vessels in the eastern Black Sea have disrupted Russia's grain shipments, too.Russia is the world's largest wheat exporter - but according to a Moscow-based analytics company, exports for August could fall by more than half compared to the same month over the last five years due to the disruption in the Black and Azov seas.On Wednesday, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine of carrying out strikes on Russian grain and agricultural infrastructure, resulting in a hike in global food prices and growing grain shortages.But Zakharova also said that R
Russia's only liberal, anti-war party will not be able to take part in next month's parliamentary elections, a Moscow court has ruled.Yabloko was the only registered party to oppose Russia's war on Ukraine. The case against it was brought forward by Rodina, a pro-Kremlin nationalist party.Hundreds of people - mostly very young - on Monday had stood outside the Moscow courthouse where the hearing was taking place in support of Yabloko, singing songs and waving flags. Videos posted on social media showed that when news of the verdict spread among the crowd, many started chanting: "Shame! Shame!"The lawsuit by the Rodina party accused Yabloko of publicly supporting an extremist organisation by publishing material on its website in support of the "international LGBT movement", which Russia's Supreme Court designated as extremist in 2023. Rodina also said Yabloko was guilty of copyright infringement after a senior party member had quoted the lyrics of a Soviet-era song - "Let there always be sunshine" - in an interview. At the hearing, Russia's financial monitoring service also claimed that Yabloko received money through third parties from foreign countries, including Germany and the US.The Kremlin-controlled Central Electoral Commission had approved Yabloko's candidate list in late July. But by then several party members had already been barred from running, including two deputy chairmen and deputy leader Maxim Kruglov, who was sentenced in June to seven years' imprisonment for social media posts about civilian casualties in Bucha, Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities. And last week, Yabloko had suffered a cyberattack soon after launching a donations appeal for its election campaign fund.It campaigned under the slogan "For peace and freedom! For a life without fear!" and advocated for a "ceasefire, diplomacy, and peace" and "for a Russia free from fear and political repression".Hundreds gathered outside the Moscow courthouse, chanting "Russia" and "Yabloko" - the Russian word for "apple" - as the eight-hour hearing dragged on. Many carried apples as a sign of support.Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, any remaining opposition to the Kremlin has been crushed.Public shows of dissent have been suppressed by wartime censorship laws and can trigger hefty fines or long prison sentences. Because protests are no longer permitted, the Yabloko hearing offered a rare chance for likeminded Russians opposing the war to gather publicly. "For Yabloko. For freedom" was scribbled in chalk on the pavement outside the courthouse.Yabloko has not won Duma seats since 2003 but has contested every election since. Once led by presidential contender Grigory Yavlinsky, it later fractured with allies - expelling the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2007 and criticising him even after he was eventually imprisoned ahead of his death in 2024. Still, Yabloko remained Russia's most consistent anti-war voice, opposing Russia's war on Chechnya, the 2014 annexation of Crimea, and the invasion of Ukraine.With ruling party United Russia's ratings down to 33% amid inflation, internet blackouts and drone strikes, Yabloko's support had been surging. The Kremlin could have allowed Yabloko to contest the election and initially appeared to be leaning in that direction, potentially to use the party's marginal result in 2021 - when it won just 1.34% of the vote - to demonstrate how unpopular an anti-war stance is in Russia. But the Kremlin appears to have changed its calculations as signs of growing dissent over the war in Ukraine emerge.Without a political force that clearly represents the opposition on the ballot, fewer people may be motivated to go to the polls. A low-turnout election, particularly among those who oppose the ruling party, is exactly what the Kremlin wants.All 10 other parties taking part in the election either support the war in Ukraine or do not openly criticise it.And although United Russia's ratings app
The video, which made headlines round the world, shows Yurii, the vegetable seller, being attacked in Kerson.Published On 5 Aug 2026
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