A Russian drone struck a Turkish-owned cargo vessel en route to Ukraine, setting it on fire and killing one crew member, Ukrainian officials said Monday.
The Panama-flagged vessel, the Victress, was described by the Ukrainian navy as a Turkish cargo ship. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said the sailor killed was a 58-year-old Egyptian cook.
Eight other crew members, including nationals of Turkey and India, escaped the burning vessel on a life raft, Kuleba said on Telegram. He said the ship “sustained significant damage and lost seaworthiness.”
The Ukrainian navy said a “large-scale fire” broke out on the Victress after the drone strike and that Ukrainian naval crews carried out a rescue operation because of the risk that the fire could spread further.
“This incident once again demonstrates that the Russian Federation continues to violate the norms of international maritime law and to pose threats to civilian shipping,” the navy said in a Telegram post.
The attack puts Turkey, which has sought to maintain ties with both Kyiv and Moscow since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, in the middle of renewed risks to civilian shipping in the Black Sea.
Turkey has supplied drones to Ukraine, hosted rounds of talks between the warring sides and worked with the United Nations on the now-defunct Black Sea grain deal while avoiding direct participation in Western sanctions against Russia.
Kuleba said Russian forces also attacked vessels sailing under the flags of Palau and Belize overnight, with no casualties reported. Ukrainian officials later said three merchant vessels heading for ports in Odesa Oblast had been attacked.
Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s ports and maritime export routes, which are vital to the country’s foreign trade and wartime economy.
The strike came as Moscow and Kyiv have stepped up attacks on each other in recent weeks, while US-led efforts to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II remain stalled.
Ukrainian regional authorities separately reported Monday that Russian attacks killed two people, one in a missile strike in the port city of Odesa and another in a drone attack in Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine.
In Russia, aviation authorities briefly closed Moscow’s four airports Monday after a wave of drones was intercepted. Russia’s defense ministry said air defenses destroyed 301 Ukrainian drones across the country overnight.
© Agence France-Presse