The death toll from a Russian strike on a cargo vessel off the coast of the Ukrainian city of Odesa has risen to 10.
The Guinea-Bissau-flagged vessel was hit by Russian cruise missiles on Sunday, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, causing a fire, the BBC reported, citing Gazeta Express.
A search-and-rescue operation continued throughout the night. By Monday morning, Ukraine’s port authority said that nine crew members had been killed, along with one of its pilots.
The Odesa region has come under repeated attacks in recent weeks.
Twenty-eight people were killed in Russian strikes across the region in July alone, Ukrainian Governor Oleh Kiper told Ukrainian television on Monday.
Russian attacks on commercial vessels in the Black Sea have also increased.
Sunday’s strike on the Golden Leo, a Guinea-Bissau-flagged vessel, was the deadliest attack of its kind.
These foreign-flagged ships, often carrying international crews, support Ukraine’s last remaining maritime export corridor, transporting goods along the Romanian and Bulgarian coastlines and onward to Turkey.
Maritime exports account for more than two-thirds of Ukraine’s agricultural exports, worth approximately $9 billion (£6.7 billion), representing a crucial source of revenue for Kyiv.
Fighting in the Black Sea had largely reached a stalemate during the four and a half years since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
While Ukrainian vessels have been unable to move beyond areas near Odesa due to Russian control of much of the coastline, Kyiv’s drones have forced Moscow to keep its naval assets hidden and protected at bases in the eastern Black Sea.
