Russian Drones Hit Panama-Flagged Grain Ships Near Odesa, Damaging Key Ukrainian Ports

KYIV, Ukraine — Two Panama-flagged bulk carriers en route to load Ukrainian wheat were hit by Russian drones off the Odesa coast on Dec. 30, Ukrainian officials said, in an attack that also damaged Black Sea port infrastructure central to global grain exports.

Ships damaged as they approached port

The Ukrainian Navy said unmanned aerial vehicles struck the Emmakris III and the Captain Karam as they were entering a Ukrainian Black Sea port to take on wheat. Both vessels suffered damage and members of their civilian crews were wounded, the Navy said, without specifying how many people were injured or their nationalities.

In the same wave of strikes, drones and missiles hit facilities at the ports of Pivdennyi, also known as Yuzhny, and Chornomorsk in Ukraine’s Odesa region, officials said. The attacks set oil storage tanks ablaze and damaged a Panamanian-flagged grain vessel moored in port, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Ukraine’s government denounced the strikes as a deliberate assault on civilian shipping and food infrastructure that it says risks undermining supplies to import-dependent countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

“This is another targeted attack by Russia on civilian port infrastructure,” Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said in a statement. “A civilian vessel with grain under the Panamanian flag was damaged, oil storage tanks were hit, one person was injured. The enemy is trying to disrupt logistics and complicate shipping.”

The Ukrainian Navy said in a separate statement that Russian forces “struck two civilian vessels” — the Emmakris III and the Captain Karam — with attack drones as they headed to port to load wheat. It said civilians were wounded and called the strike a “conscious war crime,” describing Russia as a “terrorist state.”

Regional governor Oleh Kiper said the Odesa district had come under a “mass drone attack” that damaged industrial and port infrastructure, including what he described as empty vegetable oil tanks, and injured one civilian. He said a ship in the port area was also hit.

None of the Ukrainian claims could be independently verified immediately, and Russia has not issued a detailed public account of the incident. Moscow has long denied targeting civilians and says it strikes only military or dual-use facilities, but it has repeatedly hit ports, grain terminals and foreign merchant vessels since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

What is known about the vessels

The Emmakris III and Captain Karam are standard dry bulk carriers — workhorse ships that move grain, coal and ore around the world. Both sail under the Panamanian flag, a common “flag of convenience” for international shipping.

The Emmakris III, a 73,000-deadweight-ton vessel built in 2000, has a particularly tangled history in the war. Before Russia’s invasion, it carried bulk cargoes including grain in the Black Sea. Ukrainian court records show the ship was arrested in 2022 as an asset linked to Russian interests, then transferred in 2023 to Ukraine’s Asset Recovery and Management Agency, or ARMA, which manages seized property.

ARMA later announced plans to use the Emmakris III as a floating grain storage facility at the port of Chornomorsk, effectively turning a Russian-owned vessel into part of Ukraine’s export infrastructure. In 2025, Ukrainian authorities said they had blocked an attempt by a private manager to move the ship out of the country in violation of a court ban.

Officials have not detailed where exactly along the approach to port the Emmakris III was struck Dec. 30, but the Navy described it as engaged in preparations to load wheat — a civilian cargo.

By contrast, the Captain Karam is a 56,000-deadweight-ton supramax bulker operated by Greek-controlled interests, according to commercial shipping databases. It has regularly traded on Black Sea-to-Mediterranean routes carrying grain and other bulk commodities. Ukrainian officials say it, too, was “entering the port to load wheat” when it was hit.

There is no public evidence that either vessel was being used for military transport, and Ukrainian officials have characterized both as civilian ships engaged in commercial trade.

Ports central to wartime exports

The ports targeted in the same attack are pillars of Ukraine’s wartime export system.

Pivdennyi, a deep-water harbor south of Odesa city, is one of the country’s largest ports by volume, handling iron ore, coal, fertilizers and grain. Chornomorsk, formerly known as Illichivsk, specializes in grain, vegetable oil and container traffic. Together with Odesa’s main commercial port, they form the “Greater Odesa” cluster that anchors a maritime corridor Ukraine has operated since 2023 without Russian participation.

That corridor, established after Moscow withdrew from a U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal, has allowed thousands of ships to carry tens of millions of tons of Ukrainian exports despite ongoing hostilities. Ukrainian officials say the ports in the Odesa region handled more than 97 million tons of cargo in 2024, the majority of it exports of agricultural products.

The Dec. 30 strikes followed a series of Russian attacks on those same ports in December.

Earlier in the month, missiles and drones ignited grain silos and damaged energy infrastructure in Odesa, causing blackouts in parts of the region. On Dec. 21 and 22, attacks at Pivdennyi destroyed containers holding flour and vegetable oil, according to Ukrainian authorities. On Dec. 24, a strike there ruptured sunflower oil tanks, spilling thousands of tons of organic oil into port waters and coating seabirds, prompting a clean-up operation and wildlife rescue.

In March, a Russian strike on the Panama-flagged bulk carrier MJ Pinar as it loaded grain in an Odesa-area port killed four crew members. That attack drew condemnation from Kyiv and prompted renewed concern from shipping companies and insurers about the risk to civilian crews.

Legal and economic implications

International humanitarian law prohibits attacks on civilian objects, including merchant ships and port facilities, unless they are being used for military purposes or make an effective contribution to military action. Even then, any strike must meet requirements of distinction, proportionality and precaution.

Legal experts and Ukrainian officials say there is no indication that the Emmakris III, the Captain Karam or the oil tanks struck on Dec. 30 were legitimate military objectives. Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly accused Russia of systematically targeting grain infrastructure and foreign-flagged vessels to damage the country’s economy and increase global reliance on Russian grain and fertilizer.

Russia has previously claimed that some port strikes were aimed at weapons depots, air defense systems or foreign “mercenary” support hubs, but has not provided evidence in most cases, and independent verification is often impossible because of security conditions.

The latest attacks come as Ukrainian and Russian forces have stepped up operations against each other’s energy and export infrastructure at sea.

Ukraine has used sea drones and long-range missiles to hit Russian oil tankers and port facilities on the other side of the Black Sea, including near the oil hub of Tuapse, moves that have driven up war-risk insurance premiums for ships calling at Russian ports. Insurers and shipping sources say rates for Ukrainian ports have also risen, reflecting the perception that commercial vessels on both sides of the conflict are increasingly at risk.

According to data shared by Ukrainian officials and traders, December 2025 grain and vegetable oil exports fell well short of targets as a result of port outages and ship delays. One major port was operating at a fraction of its capacity following earlier strikes, and some cargoes have been diverted to smaller Danube River ports or overland routes through the European Union, which are more costly and less efficient.

Before the war, Ukraine was among the world’s top grain exporters, supplying about 9% of global wheat exports, 12% of corn exports and nearly half of all sunflower oil traded internationally. Agricultural goods generated $24.5 billion in export revenue in 2024, accounting for more than half of Ukraine’s foreign sales, according to official statistics.

Aid agencies and importing countries have warned that any sustained disruption to those flows can add volatility to global food prices and complicate procurement for humanitarian programs.

Kuleba said after the latest strikes that the ports of Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk remained operational under heightened security procedures.

“Despite the shelling, seaports continue to operate in accordance with safety rules,” he said.

For shipowners and crews, however, the risks are mounting. The attack on the Emmakris III and the Captain Karam underscores that even vessels flagged to third countries and chartered for civilian cargo can become targets as they approach Ukrainian ports.

With no clear end to the conflict at sea in sight, each new strike on a bulk carrier or terminal adds to the pressure on a fragile export corridor that has, so far, kept much of Ukraine’s grain moving to world markets. The Dec. 30 attacks suggest that corridor will remain a front line — and that the safety of the ships that feed it cannot be taken for granted.