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Russian drones set fire to a cargo vessel bound for Ukraine overnight, killing one crew member, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba stated Monday, as Moscow and Kyiv continued to escalate attacks on each other amid frozen peace talks.
"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 eight sailors, including citizens of Türkiye and India, were forced to evacuate on a life raft, and that the vessel "sustained significant damage and lost seaworthiness."
The Ukrainian Navy said a "large-scale fire" broke out aboard the Turkish-owned, Panama-flagged cargo vessel Victress following the drone strike.
The navy said its patrol boat crews successfully carried out a rescue operation to evacuate the ship's crew amid the worsening fire risk, though the operation was not without loss of life.
"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 statement on Facebook.
It added that Ukraine's naval forces "will continue to do everything possible to make the sea safe."
Russian forces also attacked vessels sailing under the flags of Palau and Belize overnight, according to Kuleba's statement.
Both ships sustained damage but continued moving, and no casualties were reported aboard either vessel.
Kuleba described the attacks on the three civilian cargo ships as "another war crime" by Russia.
"Attacks on the merchant fleet and humanitarian sea routes are a direct threat to global food and economic security and demand a decisive response from the international community," he said.
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