Zelenskyy: Ukraine strikes Russia's Black Sea base at Novorossiysk, hitting port and grain terminals

Ukraine's air and sea drones have succeeded in limiting the movements of Russia's once-dominant Black Sea navy, Kyiv officials say, in one of the country's biggest accomplishments of the war

Published — August 12, 2026 10:23 pm IST — Kyiv

AP

Ukrainian anti-ship missiles and drones blitzed a major Russian naval base on the Black Sea coast in a "unique" nighttime operation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday (August 12, 2026).

Cutting-edge drones developed by Kyiv since Moscow's full-scale invasion over four years ago have repeatedly targeted Russian ships in the Black Sea, including warships and oil tankers.

Ukraine's air and sea drones have succeeded in limiting the movements of Russia's once-dominant Black Sea navy, Kyiv officials say, in one of the country's biggest accomplishments of the war.

But Ukrainian officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin is bent on pressing ahead with the war, despite his bigger army's slow and costly progress on the battlefield and U.S. diplomatic efforts to find a settlement.

Mr. Putin is planning "an additional rapid mobilization of several hundred thousand Russians by the end of the year," Mr. Zelenskyy said on Tuesday (August 11) night on social media, citing Ukrainian intelligence reports.

Those reports have said recently that Russia is expanding production of ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones, both of which are hard for Ukrainian air defences to counter.

Ukraine also is trying to scale up its weapons manufacturing through agreements with partner countries.

Russia Shows No Sign of a New Mobilisation

Neither Mr. Putin nor other senior Russian officials have hinted at a possible major call-up of forces to fight in Ukraine. Some officials have accused Kyiv of trying to rattle the Russian public with talk of a mobilisation.

Russian lawmaker Andrei Gurulyov brushed off reports of a possible autumn mobilisation. "It is the enemy deliberately spreading rumors about mobilisation in order to destabilize the situation inside Russia," he was quoted as saying by pro-Kremlin online outlet Tsargrad in comments published on Monday (August 10).

After the widely unpopular partial mobilization of some 300,000 men four years ago, Russia has relied on volunteers attracted by relatively high pay. However, the decree declaring the partial mobilization that Putin signed in September 2022 is open-ended, allowing authorities to resume it if needed.

Ukraine Says It Hit Black Sea Port Infrastructure

The Ukrainian military "carried out a unique operation targeting the naval base in Novorossiysk — the last major stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea," Mr. Zelenskyy said in a social media post on Wednesday (August 12). The attack struck air defences, piers and other port infrastructure, he added.

Russia relocated most of its naval ships to Novorossiysk after Ukrainian strikes on the main Black Sea base at Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula earlier in the war.

Hundreds of Ukrainian drones attacked Novorossiysk, Anapa, and Gelendzhik and the Temryuk district of the Krasnodar region overnight, said Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev.

An 8-year-old child was one of three people killed in the attack on the region, Mr. Kondratyev said. He added that 24 others in the region were wounded. Dozens of residential buildings were damaged, Mr. Kondratyev said, and debris from downed drones fell on the grounds of four industrial plants.

The strikes damaged two of Novorossiysk's three grain terminals, with one of them halting operations, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported.

Russia's Defence Ministry said its air defences downed more than 500 Ukrainian drones.

Struck Russian Port Is Also a Key Oil Hub

Novorossiysk also is home to the Grushovaya oil terminal, one of the largest international hubs in southern Russia for petroleum products. No reports indicated it had been hit.