"My crane operator, my partner, died five metres from me. The driver remained in the cabin. He also died."

Svitlana Halchenko recalls the Russian ballistic missile strike at her workplace in Odesa that claimed her colleagues. She serves as a warehouse shift manager at the main port and continues her duties despite injuries including shrapnel lodged in her leg and back that cause a limp.

Her usual busy site now stands mostly quiet. Russia has intensified efforts to cut Ukraine's trade routes by striking along the Black Sea coast. Signs of damage appear at port facilities and on ships with scorched bridges and smouldering containers. Approaches to ports such as Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi show almost no vessels.

Svitlana keeps a composed expression yet shows clear distress while twisting a tissue and looking away as tears form. Recent weeks have proved especially hard. "It has been very difficult for morale," she says. "Many sirens, many Shahed drones, many strikes. People feel on edge."

Ukraine's port authority recorded 57 Russian attacks on civilian ships in July, including 22 at sea, plus 67 strikes on port structures. Such assaults on international vessels have grown more frequent and lethal. On 19 July a Turkish cargo ship, Golden Leo, carrying Ukrainian corn took three Russian missiles and sank a week later, killing nine Indian and Syrian crew plus a Ukrainian pilot.

Lloyd's List now ranks the Black Sea as the world's riskiest shipping zone, with July the deadliest month for merchant sailors since the full invasion began. Oleg Grygoriuk, head of the Marine Transport Workers Union of Ukraine, notes veterans among his members find port work scarier than frontline duty. Odesa's nearness to occupied areas leaves little reaction time, as missiles from Crimea arrive in about a minute while descending from a crane takes three and a half minutes.

During a restricted visit to one major port, almost no activity appeared. Empty berths stretched for hundreds of metres and gantry cranes stood still except for a small maintenance team. Two damaged cargo ships sat nearby with heavy superstructure harm. Only one freighter approached. A senior manager described a broken heart at the lack of usual queues and blamed the end of the 2022 grain deal for the systematic targeting that followed.

Sirens interrupted the tour, sending everyone to shelter as a jet drone passed overhead. The port has closed for 15 of every 24 hours due to alerts. Though technically open, risks deter most owners. Andrey Stavnitser, co-owner of a large regional port, says few ships call because of deaths and the supply chain has stalled. He links the Russian campaign to Ukraine's successful drone strikes on Russian vessels and Crimea supply routes under Operation MoLoChKa, which has halted Sea of Azov traffic.

Ukraine sees its actions as efforts to free occupied land while Russia blocks vital grain exports. With harvest season underway, trader Volodymyr Slavinskyi of Nibulon stresses the urgent need to move crops and reinvest. Ukraine supplies significant global wheat and corn shares, yet its export capacity has fallen by at least a third. Greater Odesa ports handled over 73 million tonnes last year, including 38 million tonnes of grain. Traders already tally losses of 500,000 to 700,000 metric tons this summer.

Elsewhere in Odesa summer continues with crowded beaches and buskers on the Potemkin Stairs. Visitors often ignore distant explosions. In late June shrapnel from an intercepted drone killed 26-year-old Daria Kravchenko on a beach. Similar incidents have occurred on Russia's coast. Outside the city 83-year-old Andrii Dudik surveyed drone damage to his home yet remained calm, joking about his changed afternoon plans and vowing not to forget the strike.