Turkey warned Friday against an “uncontrolled escalation” in the Black Sea after Ukraine said a Russian drone strike damaged a Turkish-owned cargo ship sailing from the Odesa region to Turkey, wounding two crew members and setting the vessel on fire.
Ukraine’s navy said the Vanuatu-flagged dry cargo ship ANT was hit overnight by a Russian drone while carrying cargo from a port in Ukraine’s Odesa region to Turkey.
“The Russian Federation carried out a targeted attack on a Turkish vessel,” Ukraine’s navy said, adding that the drone struck the ship’s superstructure and caused a fire.
The navy said two wounded crew members were evacuated by Ukrainian naval boats and taken to a medical facility. Ukrainian rescue teams and navy personnel brought the fire under control.
“Our warning to all relevant parties to avoid steps that could lead to the uncontrolled escalation of the war remains in place,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
Turkey said its consulate general in Odesa was monitoring the condition of the injured crew members and repeated its call for the safety of civilian navigation in the Black Sea and for the war to end through negotiations.
The ministry also said Ankara was ready to help develop regional, results-oriented measures to prevent escalation and speed up the peace process.
The incident came a day after three oil tankers linked to Russia’s sanctions-busting “shadow fleet” were hit by drones off Turkey’s Black Sea coast.
Those attacks were not claimed, but they appeared to fit Ukraine’s campaign against Russian energy logistics and the fleet used to move Russian oil outside Western sanctions. Crews on the three tankers were reported to be safe.
Turkey, a NATO member that controls access to the Black Sea through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, has tried to keep working relations with both Kyiv and Moscow during the war.
Ankara has backed Ukraine’s territorial integrity and supplied weapons to Kyiv while maintaining energy, trade and diplomatic ties with Russia.
Turkey has warned in previous maritime incidents that attacks on commercial vessels in the Black Sea pose risks to life, property, navigation and the environment.
In March, Turkey said a drone attack on the Sierra Leone-flagged, Turkish-operated tanker ALTURA in its Black Sea exclusive economic zone was unlawful and risked spreading the war across the sea.
The latest strike adds to concern that the Black Sea, a corridor for Ukrainian exports and Russian energy shipments, is becoming a more dangerous theater of the war.
With reporting by Agence France-Presse