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Türkiye's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that drones struck two Turkish-owned civilian ships, the Yasar and the Nadezhda, shortly after they left Russia's Novorossiysk port.
The ministry said the attack injured a group of personnel, including Turkish citizens.
"It has been learned that the Turkish-owned civilian vessels named Yasar and Nadezhda were attacked by unmanned aerial vehicles after departing Novorossiysk Port yesterday evening, and that a group of personnel, including our citizens, were injured," the ministry said in a written statement.
"The safety and security of our citizens is our highest priority, and their condition is being closely monitored," the ministry said.
It said it is seriously concerned that the Russia-Ukraine war is increasingly spreading into the Black Sea in ways that affect civilian ships, despite Türkiye's repeated warnings.
"We are seriously concerned that, despite all our warnings, the war between Russia and Ukraine is increasingly spreading across the Black Sea in a manner that also affects civilian vessels," the ministry said.
Türkiye repeated its call for all relevant parties, especially the warring sides, to urgently implement concrete measures to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea.
The ministry's statement did not provide further details on the Yasar or specify how many people aboard each ship were hurt.
The Nadezhda, a Cameroon-flagged roll-on/roll-off cargo ship, was struck by drones about 20 nautical miles off Novorossiysk on Aug. 3, Türkiye's Directorate General of Maritime Affairs said.
The directorate said the ship had been sailing from Novorossiysk to Samsun. That account revised earlier reports, which had said the vessel was sailing from Samsun to Novorossiysk carrying fresh fruit and vegetables.
The directorate said 22 crew members were aboard, 13 of them Turkish citizens.
Russian naval units evacuated the crew to Novorossiysk Port after coordinating with the maritime rescue center known as MRCC Novo, the directorate said.
The ship sustained damage to its living quarters and bow section, and a fire continued to burn on board, according to the directorate. It said a rescue operation could not proceed at first because of the ongoing risk of drone attacks in the area.
The directorate said three crew members may have suffered serious injuries.
The Nadezhda's captain, Yalcin Sahin, said Ukraine carried out the strike using six or seven drones, according to Ihlas News Agency (IHA).
That claim has not been independently verified, and there was no immediate statement from Ukrainian or Russian authorities on the incident.
Maritime databases link the vessel to Samsun-based Kalyoncu Shipping.
It has an overall length of about 119 meters and a width of about 19 meters, according to vessel-tracking data.
Turkish-owned and Turkish-crewed vessels have faced a series of incidents in the Black Sea since the Russia-Ukraine war began. Those have included a fatal attack on a Turkish sailor and a drone strike on the Turkish-owned grain ship ATA-2 near Chornomorsk.
Ukraine has targeted Russian-flagged vessels in the Black Sea throughout the war and has accused Russia of using the waterway to move sanctioned goods, including oil.
Russia has separately struck Ukrainian port infrastructure and vessels approaching Ukrainian ports, attacks Kyiv has described as "war crimes."
Türkiye's top diplomat Hakan Fidan warned in Kyiv last month that "the targeting of ports, tankers and fishing boats in Black Sea and putting civilians' lives at risk cannot be justified," proposing a war moratorium on maritime and energy targets if the war cannot be ended outright.
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