Turkish owned cargo vessel carrying Ukrainian grain sank in the Black Sea on Monday after a deadly drone attack, killing two sailors and leaving one crew member missing, Romanian authorities said. Eleven others were rescued in a large-scale operation involving Romanian ships and helicopters after the vessel caught fire following the blasts, reported by Euro News.
The ship, identified as the Royad Mammadov and sailing under a Saint Kitts and Nevis flag, was struck within Romania’s exclusive economic zone, roughly 20 miles from the coast and about 9 nautical miles from the Pescăruș offshore platform. It had departed earlier that day from the Ukrainian port of Ismail in the Odesa region, bound for Ravenna, Italy, according to maritime tracking data.
Romanian officials said the vessel was hit by at least one drone, while Adrian Mihalcioiu, head of Romania’s Free Navigators Union, told Euronews Romania that both aerial and sea drones were used against what he described as a purely commercial ship “which had nothing to do with the war.” Three wounded sailors, aged between 22 and 50, were airlifted to a hospital in Constanta with multiple injuries but were reported stable and conscious.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed Russia for the attack, calling it a “horrific strike by two Russian drones on a civilian vessel in neutral waters carrying corn.” In a post on X, he said Azerbaijani and Indian citizens were among those on board and accused Moscow of choosing “terror and sinking civilian vessels instead of normal maritime navigation.” Zelenskyy urged international pressure to restore global food security and protect Black Sea shipping.
The incident follows a series of drone incursions toward Romanian ports and repeated violations of Romanian airspace by Russian unmanned aircraft in recent months. In August, a fighter jet destroyed an explosive-laden maritime drone near Europe’s largest offshore gas project in the Black Sea, an episode Romanian President Nicuşor Dan also attributed to Russia, condemning what he termed an escalation of “irresponsible incidents.”
NATO member Turkey has repeatedly called on all parties to ensure safe passage for commercial ships in the Black Sea, including through the strategic Bosphorus Strait.
