Battle in the Black Sea - Russia and Ukraine intensify attacks on shipping | BBC News

Russia has been ramping up its efforts to strangle Ukraine's commercial links to the outside world, by launching waves of attacks along the country's Black Sea coastline.

While there have been Russian attacks on international vessels before, they've never been so numerous or so deadly. Ukraine's port administration says there were 57 Russian attacks on civilian vessels last month. Ukraine's once bustling ports – such as Odesa, Chornomorsk, and Pivdennyi – are almost devoid of ships.

Ukraine is also targeting shipping in the war, with recent, highly successful attacks on Russian vessels, including sanctioned tankers carrying oil, as well as ships involved in carrying supplies to Russian-occupied Crimea.

Using its own drones, Ukraine has struck around 200 Russian vessels, bringing traffic in the strategic Sea of Azov to a virtual standstill.

Reeta Chakrabarti presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Paul Adams

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