A Ukrainian was killed and five foreigners were injured in a Russian missile strike on the Black Sea port of Odessa that hit a civilian boat, prosecutors said Tuesday.
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The Black Sea is a crucial trade route for Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain producers and exporters, but it has become a naval battlefield since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
The missile attack took place Monday evening, hitting a boat flying the flag of Palau, an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement.
A 60-year-old employee of a logistics company was killed and five foreigners, members of the boat’s crew, were injured, added the prosecution, which did not specify the nationality of the injured.
Russia also launched a drone attack on the Odessa region overnight Monday to Tuesday, damaging a residential building and a business in the port city of Chornomorsk, near Odessa, the prosecutor’s office said.
“The Russian aggressors (…) terrorized the Odessa region for four hours with their combat drones,” added the regional governor, Oleg Kiper, in a press release.
This drone attack did not cause any casualties, but caused fires in several apartments in the affected building, he added, while assuring that “most” of the drones were able to be shot down by the defense. aerial.
Despite Moscow’s threats of shooting at boats sailing in the area, Ukraine set up a corridor in the Black Sea in the summer of 2023 to export its agricultural products, especially cereals.
On September 11, another ship, the cargo ship Aya flying the flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis, a Caribbean state, and carrying wheat to Egypt, was hit by a Russian missile in international waters of the Black Sea, after leaving the port of Chornomorsk.
The incident caused significant damage without causing any casualties.
According to the British Ministry of Defense, it was “almost certain” that the ship had been hit by a Russian AS-4 KITCHEN anti-ship cruise missile.
“It is unlikely that the Aya was the target” of this attack, however, estimated the ministry, raising the hypothesis of a Russian targeting error.
