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A Turkish crew member was killed, and others wounded, when the Turkish-flagged cargo ship MV Reyhan Sari, carrying coal from Russia's Taman Port to Trabzon, was struck by a drone off Novorossiysk.
The strike came as Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces announced hitting 13 more vessels in the Black and Azov seas as part of an operation targeting ships it says serve Russia's military logistics and energy exports. However, no link to the Turkish vessel has been established.
The Istanbul-registered dry cargo ship (IMO 9543342) was attacked by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) while sailing from Taman with coal for discharge in Trabzon.
A Turkish crew member working in the engine room was killed at the scene, and the wounded were given first aid before transfer to hospitals.
Despite the damage, the vessel continued under its own power and safely reached waters off Samsun, the ship's operating company said in a statement.
"Our company's Turkish-flagged merchant vessel REYHAN SARI was damaged as a result of an unmanned aerial vehicle attack that occurred on July 22, 2026, while underway in the Black Sea," the statement said, noting the attack damaged the ship's communication systems, which "made it difficult to establish uninterrupted contact with the vessel and to confirm the situation on board in all its aspects."
Two injured crew members were evacuated by helicopter and taken to health facilities in Samsun in coordination with the authorities, the company said.
It added that one crew member remained unreachable: "According to the information reaching us, one ship crew member could not be reached, and due to the effects of the attack, which took place during the night hours, the crew member's cabin could not be entered. In this context, we believe it would not be right to make statements about unconfirmed information."
"Our priority is the safety of our crew, the provision of all necessary medical and humanitarian support, and the clarification of the incident in all its aspects," the company said, adding it is cooperating fully with national and international authorities and insurers.
A Coast Guard Black Sea Regional Command helicopter flew from Samsun to evacuate the wounded, bringing them to Samsun Carsamba Airport, from where one was taken by air ambulance to Ondokuz Mayis University (OMU) Medical Faculty Hospital and the other to Samsun City Hospital.
Enes Torun, a 21-year-old crew member from Corum treated at the city hospital, who spoke to Ihlas News Agency (IHA), described the attack.
"I had just gotten up from my watch around 1:30 a.m. They hit my cabin with a drone. They pulled me out from under the wreckage. While I was in the sickbay, the second explosion happened. They blew up the deck completely. There were dead and wounded there. Besides me, there are two wounded and one dead," Torun said.
Torun suffered minor cuts, while Ufuk Cihan Yilmaz, being treated at OMU with open wounds to both legs, remains under care.
Initial reports said one crew member was killed and three wounded, with the location variously reported as off Novorossiysk and in international waters off Samsun.
Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS) said on Telegram its operators struck 13 more enemy vessels on July 21-22 under Operation MoLoChKa, targeting the Russian fleet "which provides military logistics and energy resource exports," 10 dry cargo ships and two tugboats in the Black Sea, and one oil tanker in the Sea of Azov.
In total, 196 vessels have been hit between July 6 and 22, 126 in the Azov Sea and 70 in the Black Sea, the SBS said.
Its commander, known as Magyar, said the strikes warned "shadow fleet" vessels against "loitering in the waters of the Azov and Black seas in the interests of the aggressor country," and reported a parallel operation hitting 13 energy nodes and substations in Crimea and other occupied territories on the same days, bringing that campaign's July total to 117 energy targets.
The SBS statements did not mention the Reyhan Sari, and no party has claimed or been officially assigned responsibility for the attack on the Turkish vessel.
The strike follows a series of attacks on Black Sea shipping, including the tanker Gas Lisbon hit off Romania and the deaths of Filipino and Indian seafarers in drone strikes—an escalation Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan recently condemned in Kyiv, warning that "targeting ports, tankers, and fishing boats ... cannot be justified."
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