Russian strike on cargo ship killed one – Ukraine deputy PM

Russian drones set fire to a cargo vessel en route to Ukraine and killed one of its crew, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on Monday.

Moscow and Kyiv have escalated attacks on each other in recent weeks, as US-led talks on ending Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II remain effectively frozen.

“A drone strike set fire to a vessel sailing under the Panama flag. A crew member was killed — a 58-year-old cook, a citizen of Egypt,” Kuleba wrote on Telegram.

He said that eight sailors, including citizens of Turkey and India, fled the attack on a life raft, and that the vessel “sustained significant damage and lost seaworthiness”.

The Ukrainian navy said that a “large-scale fire” broke out on the Turkish cargo vessel Victress, which was Panama-flagged, following the drone strike.

“This incident once again demonstrates that the Russian Federation continues to violate the norms of international maritime law and to pose threats to civilian shipping,” the navy said in a Telegram post.

Russians also attacked vessels sailing under the flags of Palau and Belize, with no casualties, according to Kuleba.

Regional authorities in Ukraine separately reported on Monday that Russian attacks killed two people, one in a missile strike in the port city of Odesa and another in a drone attack in Zaporizhzhia in the country’s southeast.

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“Three people have been wounded, another woman remains trapped in a burning house following an enemy attack on Zaporizhzhia,” Ivan Fedorov, head of the regional military administration wrote on Telegram on Monday.

“Sadly, the death of the woman who was inside the house destroyed by the enemy drone has been confirmed,” Fedorov wrote in a later update.

In Odesa, Ukraine’s emergency service said that Russian attacks set fire to an agricultural enterprise.

“One person was killed as a result of yesterday’s missile strike on Odesa region’s civilian infrastructure. A further three people were wounded,” the emergency service said.

In Russia, aviation authorities briefly closed Moscow’s four airports on Monday after a flurry of drones were intercepted.

Russia’s ministry of defence said on Monday morning that air defences destroyed 301 Ukrainian drones across the country overnight.

AFP