What happened

Ukrainian forces struck the Sheskharis oil-loading terminal, port infrastructure and Russia's naval base at Novorossiysk overnight into 12 August. Ukraine described the base as the Russian Black Sea Fleet's last major stronghold after much of the fleet was relocated from Sevastopol. Fires were confirmed at the terminal where crude is loaded onto tankers, and satellite thermal signatures were detected at both the naval base and petroleum-storage areas. AP, citing the Russian business daily Vedomosti, reported that two of Novorossiysk's three grain terminals were damaged and one halted operations. Regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev claimed the wider raid involved 'several hundred' drones, a figure the reviewed reporting said could not be independently verified; some reporting described a mix of aerial and naval drones and Ukrainian missiles. Mayor Andrei Kravchenko declared a state of emergency, saying the strike ruptured two major water mains and forced authorities to suspend water supply; a crisis center was established and thick smoke was reported over the port. Casualty reporting diverged: Kravchenko and Al Jazeera cited one child killed and two people injured in the city, with the wider Krasnodar region reporting eight injured, while AP and a separate wire report cited three people killed and 24 wounded across the region. The reviewed sources did not reconcile those figures. Reuters subsequently reported that on 14 August a further drone-threat alert — not a new strike, but a continuation of the 12 August damage and threat picture — led Russia to suspend crude exports at Sheskharis: a tanker due to load turned away before docking, and the terminal also stopped receiving inbound crude because its storage tanks were full. Sheskharis is Russia's main Black Sea crude-export facility, normally handling about 700,000 bbl/d (Novorossiysk port as a whole loaded nearly 1 million bbl/d in July 2026); the reviewed reporting did not specify how long the suspension lasted or confirm a resumption date.

When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.