Russian forces struck a Turkish civilian merchant vessel on Tuesday, July 14th. A UAV attack was launched which made contact with shipping near the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odesa, killing at least one sailor.
One of the damaged ships was an Azerbaijani-manned Turkish vessel flying the Tanzanian flag. The second was officially Libyan. The captain of one of the two vessels has been identified as the casualty. Three other crew members were injured, before being evacuated to shore as part of an 11-person group.
Via Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry, the Tanzanian-flagged ship was identified as the Atlas Bey, owned by the Turkish company Okean Maritime. Already in July, Baku has summoned Russia’s Ambassador Mikhail Yevdokimov in response to an inland drone strike on a facility in Ukraine belonging to the Azerbaijani state-owned energy company SOCAR. Azerbaijan denounced how the
continuation of such incidents, despite repeated warnings, indicates that the attacks are being carried out deliberately.
The attack came just one day after Russia was accused of targeting civilian shipping in the Black Sea (again). A cargo vessel under the flag of Commonwealth member Togo was struck while unloading mineral fertilisers in Odesa on July 13th.
