Russia strikes Liberian-flagged ship in Odesa region port, killing a sailor

What happened

On Saturday, October 3, Russian forces attacked a civilian cargo vessel flying the Liberian flag in one of the ports of Ukraine’s Odesa region, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA) said.

“As a result of the attack, a motorman was killed and three more crew members were injured,” the USPA statement said, as quoted by UNIAN. Another 13 crew members were evacuated to a safe place. Emergency services are working at the scene. The authority stressed that Russia had once again struck a civilian ship.

The statement did not name the vessel, the port or the type of weapon used.

Not the first strike on merchant ships

The attack on the Liberian-flagged ship is at least the third in recent weeks. As Ukrinform recalls, on September 28 President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces had struck a vessel flying the Palau flag in the Odesa region. On September 17, Russian forces attacked a Tanzanian-flagged vessel in the Black Sea, killing the captain and injuring three crew members.

Al Jazeera notes that Russia has in effect blockaded Ukraine’s Black Sea ports — formerly a key global source of food exports — by attacking civilian vessels carrying grain and steel, dealing a heavy blow to the Ukrainian economy.

Other attacks in the south overnight

According to Ukraine’s Air Force, early on October 3 Russia attacked the Odesa region with Banderol-type loitering munitions; the consequences were being clarified. Officials have not said whether that attack was linked to the strike on the ship.

In Mykolaiv, the Kyiv Independent reported, a mass attack with Shahed drones and an Iskander-M ballistic missile injured three men and damaged port and civilian infrastructure.

Talk of a maritime truce

The strikes come amid diplomatic discussions about limited ceasefires. As the Times of India reported, citing RBC-Ukraine, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha recently said Ukraine was prepared to consider both an energy and an agricultural truce in the Black Sea, while remaining open to an unconditional ceasefire along the line of contact. He said four proposals were on the table: Türkiye and Egypt have proposed a grain and agricultural truce at sea, the United States an energy truce, and Sybiha called India’s proposal the most comprehensive.

The agricultural and maritime component matters especially for Egypt, which, according to the report, relies on Ukrainian grain for roughly a third of its supply.

Why it matters

In Al Jazeera’s assessment, attacks on civilian ships carrying grain and steel deal a heavy blow to Ukraine’s economy. Each such strike means dead and injured civilian seafarers and new risks for merchant shipping in the Black Sea, on which other countries’ food security also depends.