Turkish grain ship sinks in Black Sea with two dead after alleged Russian drone strike

When Romania’s Coast Guard was alerted at around 11:00 a.m. local time to a fire aboard a grain ship south of Sfântu Gheorghe, the vessel was carrying grain through waters central to Ukraine’s food exports. The 139-metre Royad Mammadov, co-owned by a company from Turkey and sailing under a non-Turkish flag, was about 30 nautical miles from the Romanian coast, inside Romania’s Black Sea exclusive economic zone.

The Romanian Naval Authority began a search-and-rescue operation, with helicopters joining the response. A helicopter winched injured crew members to safety for emergency medical treatment.

Two crew members died and 11 others were rescued before the ship sank. Azerbaijani and Indian nationals were among those aboard.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, alleged that two Russian drones had attacked the civilian vessel in neutral waters as it carried corn. He said the ship’s captain was killed.

“A horrific strike by two Russian drones on a civilian vessel in neutral waters carrying corn,” Zelenskyy said.

Romanian authorities confirmed the deaths and rescues, while leaving the cause of the fire unresolved. Romanian media reported that the ship had been hit by a drone, though the authorities did not validate that account.

The Royad Mammadov was travelling from Ukraine to Italy. Its loss has placed a commercial voyage carrying grain alongside the wider military danger facing the northern Black Sea, which remains a contested area with elevated war risk.

The Black Sea links Ukrainian grain exports to markets around the world and has faced greater security concerns since Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine in 2022.

Zelenskyy said: “Ukraine has repeatedly proposed concrete measures to ease tensions and guarantee safety in the Black Sea, but Russia continues to choose terror and the sinking of civilian vessels instead of normal navigation.”

Turkey’s Chamber of Maritime Commerce says 226 civilian and commercial vessels have been attacked in the Black Sea since the war began, with the vast majority of those attacks occurring this year. Turkish seafarers have held protests over deaths in attacks on Black Sea shipping.

The incident also follows other security episodes in Romanian waters. In August, a Romanian F-16 fighter jet destroyed a marine drone near an offshore gas project in the Black Sea. Two months before the grain ship incident, a Ukrainian maritime drone exploded in Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta after Ukraine said Russian electronic interference had knocked it off course.