A Russian missile hit a merchant ship carrying grain from Ukraine while it was sailing in the Black Sea and had already left Ukrainian waters, Volodymyr Zelensky said today.

The Ukrainian president emphasized that the ship was destined for Egypt, adding that there are no casualties from the attack.

Shipping industry sources said it was the Saint Kitts and Nevis-flagged bulk carrier Aya. As reported by Reuters, the ship’s manager is VRS Maritime Services, which is headquartered in Athens.

The ship’s last reported location was off the Romanian port of Constanta. Shortly after, a source told Reuters that the ship was sailing in Romanian territorial waters when it was hit by the Russian missile. And the representative of the Ukrainian Navy, for his part, stated that the ship when it was hit was sailing in the maritime economic zone of Romania, in Romanian territorial waters at the mouth of the Danube River in the Black Sea.

THE foreign minister of Ukraine Andrii Sibyha called the Russian strike on the ship “brazen attack” to freedom of navigation and global food security.

It is noted that based on navigation monitoring data, the ship has stopped sailing.

“It was not in Romanian territorial waters,” says Romania

The Romanian maritime authority for its part was quick to deny that the ship was sailing in Romanian territorial waters when it was hit.

“I want to emphasize that the ship was not sailing in Romanian territorial waters when it was hit,” said a source from the Romanian shipping authority.

The representative of the Ukrainian Navy, Dmytro Pletenchuk, emphasized that the ship was in the Romanian maritime economic zone when it was hit by a Russian missile. He added that Russia used Tu-22 bombers for the attack. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiha said the Russian strike on the ship was a “brazen attack” on freedom of navigation and global food security.

The Romanian Maritime Authority was quick to refute this version. A Romanian authority spokeswoman said the ship was not in Romanian territorial waters when it was hit.

“The only thing I can tell you about the ship in question at that time was not in our territorial waters,” Authority spokeswoman Irina Puskasou told Reuters. “We have not been asked in any way to provide assistance,” he added.

Russia has so far not commented on this attack.

GS