The pilot of a civilian ship flying the Liberian flag was killed on November 8 when a Russian missile struck the vessel as it entered one of the ports of Odesa, Ukraine's southern command said.
Three other members of the crew, all citizens of the Philippines, and an employee of the port were injured. One of the injured crew members was hospitalized, the operational command said.
"The missile hit the superstructure of a civilian vessel under the flag of Liberia at the moment of its entry into the port," the military command said on Telegram.
The vessel was supposed to transport iron ore to China, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said.
Kubrakov added that Russia has carried out 21 targeted attacks on port infrastructure since Moscow refused in July to renew a UN-brokered deal that guaranteed safe shipments of Ukrainian grain on the Black Sea.
"During this time, the terrorist country damaged more than 160 infrastructure facilities and 122 vehicles,"he said on Facebook.
Yoruk Isik, the head of the Bosphorus Observer consultancy, told Reuters that the civilian ship had been in the port of Pivdenniy loading iron when it was hit. Isik confirmed that the pilot, a Ukrainian, had been killed and said "a few" crew members were dead or injured.
The export deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey collapsed after Russia said its demands for sanctions relief on its grain and fertilizer exports had not been met.
In August, Kyiv opened what it calls a temporary humanitarian corridor to allow ships bound for Africa and Asia to circumvent a de facto blockade by Russia.
Ukrainian authorities said earlier on November 8 that at least five civilians had been killed and several others wounded by Russian shelling of residential areas in eastern and southeastern Ukraine in the past day.
Three people were killed in the shelling of a village in the eastern region of Donetsk, the Prosecutor-General's Office said on November 8, adding that an investigation was launched into Russia's violation of the laws of war.
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"The Russian Army struck the village of Bahatyr, in the Volnova district, probably with a Smerch multiple-launch rocket system," the Prosecutor-General's Office said in a statement.
"At the epicenter of the strike was a densely populated residential area, next to which there are no military facilities. As a result of the explosions, more than a dozen private houses were damaged and destroyed," it added.
The statement said that the bodies of a 58-year-old man, his 60-year-old wife, and their 33-year-old neighbor were discovered under the rubble of a house.
In the Kharkiv region, a 57-year-old civilian was killed and three police officers were wounded in the Russian shelling of the Kupyansk area, Ukraine's Interior Ministry said in a statement, adding that a railway station was also damaged in the attack.
In the southern Kherson region, at least one civilian was killed and another was wounded by Russian shelling, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on November 8.
"Over the past day, the enemy launched 108 attacks, firing 538 shells from mortars, artillery, Grad rocket launchers, tanks, drones, and aircraft. The enemy fired 16 shells at the city of Kherson," Prokudin wrote on Telegram, adding that the Russian military targeted other residential areas and a factory in the Kherson district.
On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces fought 57 close-quarter battles along the front line over the course of the day, the General Staff of Ukraine's military said in its evening summary on November 8.
"In total, the enemy launched two missile strikes and 30 air strikes, carried out 59 attacks from rocket salvo systems on the positions of our troops and populated areas," the summary said. "Private residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure were destroyed and damaged. Unfortunately, there are wounded among the civilian population."
The military said in its morning summary that Russian troops continued their attempts to encircle the city of Avdiyivka in the Donetsk region, where Ukrainian defenders repelled 14 assaults over the past day.
Russian forces have been repeatedly trying to capture Adviyivka for the past several weeks in one of the bloodiest battles of the war triggered by Moscow's unprovoked invasion in February 2022.