Five seafarers were killed and 12 others injured after a Russian drone struck a civilian merchant vessel at Chornomorsk port in Ukraine’s Odesa region on 13 July, marking one of the deadliest attacks on a commercial ship since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Togo-flagged general cargo vessel was unloading mineral fertilisers when the drone hit its accommodation block or superstructure, triggering a fire, according to Ukrainian officials.

Oleksii Kuleba, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister responsible for reconstruction, said the vessel was engaged in a civilian cargo operation at the time of the attack.

“Russia struck a civilian merchant vessel flying the flag of Togo during the unloading of mineral fertilisers. The hit to the ship’s superstructure caused a fire,” Kuleba said.

Initial reports put the death toll at three, but Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa regional military administration, later confirmed that five crew members had died and 12 had been injured.

Seven of the injured seafarers remained in hospital in a moderate condition, while five others received outpatient treatment. Ukrainian authorities said all those killed or injured were members of the vessel’s crew.

Ukraine’s prosecutors have opened a war-crimes investigation into the incident.

Vessel identity remains unconfirmed

The identity of the ship has yet to be officially confirmed.

Some secondary reports and social-media accounts identified the vessel as the Togo-flagged general cargo ship Aida, reportedly linked to Syrian operators. Other vessel-tracking reports suggested that the casualty could have been the Arosa.

However, publicly available classification and tracking records list Arosa under the Marshall Islands flag, which conflicts with the official Ukrainian description of the vessel as Togo-flagged.

Neither the Ukrainian authorities nor the International Maritime Organization has publicly released the vessel’s name or IMO number.

Until confirmation is provided by the shipowner, flag administration, insurer or Ukrainian authorities, the casualty should be described as a Togo-flagged merchant vessel unloading mineral fertilisers at Chornomorsk.

The nationalities of all the casualties also remain unclear. Some maritime reports said Egyptian and Syrian seafarers were among those killed or injured, but no complete official breakdown has been published.

Port and export infrastructure also damaged

The vessel strike formed part of a wider series of attacks on Chornomorsk and other port facilities in the Odesa region.

Ukraine’s Sea Ports Authority said port infrastructure and other civilian facilities were damaged during the raid.

Chornomorsk had already been subjected to heavy attacks during the nights of 10–11 July and 11–12 July.

Kernel, Ukraine’s largest producer and exporter of sunflower oil, suspended operations at its Chornomorsk export terminal after loading equipment, electricity infrastructure, grain storage facilities and sunflower-oil tanks were damaged.

The company said approximately 45,000 tonnes of wheat and 9,000 tonnes of sunflower oil had been blocked, spilled or degraded as a result of the strikes.

No Kernel employees were reported injured, but the terminal’s reopening will depend on site clearance, engineering inspections and repairs.

The damage highlights the growing impact of the attacks on both merchant shipping safety and Ukraine’s agricultural export capacity.

Russia says port facilities were military targets

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had targeted facilities at Chornomorsk allegedly used to receive and store military cargo, fuel and ammunition.

Moscow also claimed that ferries and a container ship were damaged in the attack.

The Russian statement did not acknowledge deliberately targeting the Togo-flagged civilian vessel or address the reported crew casualties.

Ukraine maintains that the ship was conducting a normal commercial operation and was unloading mineral fertilisers when it was hit.

Further merchant ships reportedly attacked

The 13 July incident was followed by reports of further attacks on commercial vessels in the region.

Ukrainian officials said two additional merchant ships flying the flags of Tanzania and Liberia were struck on 14 July. The master of one of the vessels was reportedly killed.

The latest incidents indicate that commercial vessels operating in and around Ukraine’s Black Sea ports remain exposed to a high level of risk, despite the continued movement of agricultural products and other cargoes through the region.

At the same time, Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks against Russian ports, refineries, oil depots and maritime logistics infrastructure in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.

Claims made by both sides remain part of an active wartime information environment and require careful attribution.

IMO condemns attacks on civilian shipping

International Maritime Organization Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez condemned the recent series of attacks on civilian merchant vessels in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.

“I deplore the series of attacks over the past week against civilian merchant ships operating in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea,” Dominguez told the IMO Council.

He warned that attacks on commercial shipping threaten seafarers, undermine navigational safety, disrupt supply chains and weaken the principles on which international maritime trade depends.

Dominguez also noted that while international attention has recently focused on attacks against shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, seafarers in other conflict-affected regions continue to face severe risks.

“Seafarers should never become casualties of conflicts to which they are not a party,” he said.

Based on the currently reported casualty figures, the Chornomorsk strike appears to be among the deadliest single attacks involving the crew of a civilian merchant ship since the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022.

A precise historical ranking remains difficult, as some previous port attacks killed dockworkers rather than crew members, while casualty classifications vary across official and commercial databases.