UKRAINE PERSPECTIVE

Odessa, July 16, 2026. For Ukrainian authorities, the numbers speak for themselves. According to Serhiy Lysak, head of the Odessa military administration, a Russian attack on Wednesday, July 15, killed three civilians and injured three others in residential areas hit at 7:00 a.m. The previous day, a warehouse was set on fire and two trucks were damaged in a missile strike on the port's civilian infrastructure.

But it's at sea that the battle is intensifying the most. Oleh Kiper, head of the Odessa regional administration, reported that three merchant ships were hit in a single day, July 14: two flying the flags of Tanzania and Liberia, with the captain killed and three sailors injured among the eleven crew members evacuated, and a third flying the flag of the Marshall Islands, struck by a drone, causing a fire and two additional deaths. "The enemy continues to deliberately target civilian ships in the Black Sea," Kiper emphasized, adding that "each cynical strike by the enemy is a war crime against civilians, maritime transport, and global food security."

The Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA) reported a fifth consecutive day of attacks on the port infrastructure of Greater Odessa, bringing the number of victims in this wave to eleven since its onset. Kyiv sees this as confirmation of a "total disregard for international law."

This local situation is part of a national trend documented by the UN: according to the Human Rights Monitoring Mission (HRMMU), 293 civilians were killed and 1,990 injured in June, a record since April 2022, up 10% from May and 37% from the previous year. The head of the mission, Danielle Bell, warned that "the risks for civilians are not only persisting, they are growing in scope and complexity." In the first six months of 2026, 1,396 civilians have died, a 114% increase from 2024, with long-range strikes now hitting urban centers far from the front lines, such as Kyiv and Dnipro.