During January – March 2025 Ukrainian ports handled 23 mln tons of cargoes.
Black Sea Ports handled 20.7 mln tons:
Pivdennyi – 10.6 mln tons;
Chornomorsk – 6.6 mln tons;
Odesa – 3.5 mln tons.
Ukrainian ports on Danube in total handled 2.3 mln tons of cargoes during the said period.
Both Reni & Izmail ports are nowadays facing decrease of turnover volumes, this problem started to develop when Ukrainian Black Sea Ports resumed operation.
For comparison, in the first quarter of 2024 Ukrainian ports handled 4.8 mln tons more than this year.
Fall in turnover volumes is connected with the war-related reduction of land areas used by agricultural industry, as well as decrease of production in other spheres. In particular, metal industry was one of the Ukrainian economy’s flagships in pre-war times, 75-80% of produced steel were exported by sea. Now the volumes significantly reduced and logistic costs raised due to involvement of railway & land transport. Demand for steel within Ukrainian market before war was mostly focused on commercial construction and production, now its infrastructure and defence. 27-30% of internal market’s needs are covered by steels imported from Turkey, China and India. In order to make Ukrainian steel more competitive it’s necessary to invest into modernization of the local plants to improve the quality of the products and decrease the price.
Upon the end of March’25 more than 280 thousand tons of agricultural products were delivered within “Grain from Ukraine” humanitarian initiative to the countries facing sharp food crisis.
Recent attacks against Ukrainian Ports
On 13/02/2025 at night Russia massively attacked Izmail Region with drones, which resulted in damage to port infrastructure.
On 24/02/2025 at night Russia attacked port Odesa region with drones, which resulted in damage to port infrastructure. No killed/injured people.
On 01/03/2025 Russia stroke Odesa with a missile. 2 port workers suffered from the attack. Damage was sustained by port infrastructure and by 2 civil ships: SUPER SARKAS (flag: Sierra Leone), carrying abt 21 thousand tons of soya and corn for export, and container ship MSC LEVANTE F.
On 12/03/2025 Russia attacked Odesa port with a missile, as a result mv MJ PINA (Flag: Barbados) was damaged, 4 Syrian citizens were killed, 2 more people injured. The vessel was under loading of wheat for Algiers. Damage was also sustained by one more vessel, piers, grain warehouses.
On 30/04/2025 at night Russia attacked Odesa region with drones. Part of the railway, power nets and cargo wagons were damaged. Cargoes are carried to the port by alternative railways until the main ones are repaired.
Losses sustained by the Ukrainian Ports
Since the beginning of the war there were more than 50 Russian attacks against Ukrainian ports.
As of the end of March 2025 13 seafarers were killed and few dozens injured as a result of Russian attacks against the civil ships in Ukraine.
Odesa port was attacked for abt 8 times, also there were multiple attacks on port infrastructure in Odesa Region. Abt 8 attacks were sustained by Izmail port.
Mykolaiv suffered from 2 attacks against the port itself and multiple attacks against other port objects in the region.
Reni & Pivdennyi ports were attacked for abt 5 times, 3 attacks were faced by Chornomorsk port. Berdyansk, Olvia & Nika-Tera were attacked once.
In total abt 400 objects of port infrastructure, including piers, handling machinery, vessels and auxiliary equipment were damaged or destroyed by drones & missiles.
Ukrainian Sea Ports Administration has the following priority tasks: restoration and modernization of infrastructure including piers’ reconstruction, development of container shipments, implementation of modern technologies and strengthening of international cooperation.
As for the Ukrainian Ports on Danube currently the following strategy is being developed to make them competitive: increase of depths, restoration of number of piers, operational efficiency, tariffs regulation, functioning of border infrastructure and involvement of new participants into logistic processes.
Sanctioned activities
Ukrainian Security Service arrested vessel belonging to Russian “dark” fleet. In the end of 2024, she took 5 thousand tons of wheat out of Crimea. This grain was illegally collected from the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory. Investigation is in progress after arrest of the ship and detainment of her crew.
Master of another vessel SAN COSMAS received notice of suspicion due to carriage of Ukrainian agricultural products from Crimean ports.
First container train arrived from Russia to Crimea via occupied territories. The containers are planned to be loaded onto ships from Sevastopol port.
Russian occupants are planning to build a marina at Azov Sea port Berdyansk. Marina will host up to 25 yachts, also there scheduled to be ship-repair facilities.
Recently Head Direction of Intelligence of Ukrainian Ministry of Defence published data about 11 Russian Masters and 31 ships involved in schemes breaching sanctions for trading Russian fuel.
War & Sanctions portal contains information as to 100 Russian Masters and 782 ships of Russian “dark” fleet.
Russian occupants are planning to increase Mariupol port turnover to be able to export abt 12 mln tons of illegally taken from Ukraine grains & steels.