Romanian authorities said on Monday that two people were killed and another one was wounded after a fire broke out in a commercial vessel on Romanian waters in the Black Sea.
The Turkish-owned civilian vessel subsequently sank. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the incident was caused by a Russian drone attack.
Romania’s Interior Ministry said the Coast Guard was alerted at around 11 a.m. local time (14:00 UTC) and the afflicted vessel was in Romania’s exclusive economic zone, some 30 nautical miles (55 kilometers) south of Sfantul Gheorghe in Tulcea County.
“Eleven crew members have been rescued. Two deceased individuals have also been located,” the ministry said, adding that a helicopter had airlifted the injured.
Zelenskyy accuses Russia of ‘horrific strike’
Authorities did not identify the cause of the fire, but Romanian media reported that the ship was carrying grain and was hit by a drone.
“A horrific strike by two Russian drones on a civilian vessel in neutral waters carrying corn and owned by Türkiye. Azerbaijani and Indian citizens were on board,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X.
“As of now, unfortunately, we know that the ship’s captain was killed … The fate of one other person is still being established,” he added.
The Ukrainian government says it has repeatedly proposed taking steps to de-escalate the situation in the Black Sea, which is putting maritime trade at risk.
“But Russia consistently chooses terror and sinking civilian vessels instead of normal maritime navigation,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
Rising threat to Black Sea maritime traffic
The Black Sea is a major commercial shipping route, which connects Ukraine’s grain exports with the rest of the world. The waterway has faced heightened security concerns since Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine in 2022.
There has been an increase in war-related objects found in the Black Sea, mostly in Romanian, Bulgarian and Turkish waters, with analysts saying the trend is expected to continue.
The incident is the latest to take place on Romanian waters. In August, a Romanian F-16 fighter jet destroyed a marine drone near an offshore gas project in the Black Sea.
Two months before, a Ukrainian maritime drone exploded in Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta, with Ukraine saying the drone had been knocked off course by Russian electronic interference.
Edited by: Wesley Dockery
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