Russian drone hits Turkish-owned cargo ship leaving Odesa, injuring two crew as Ankara warns against Black Sea escalation

A Russian drone struck a Turkish-owned cargo ship in the Black Sea late on May 28, injuring two Turkish crew members and starting a fire on board. Ukraine's navy said strike drones hit the Vanuatu-flagged vessel ANT, owned by a Turkish company, as it sailed the Black Sea export route from the Odesa region toward Türkiye carrying dry bulk cargo; the strike damaged the ship's superstructure, sparked a blaze and forced part of the crew to evacuate.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry confirmed the attack in a statement on May 29. "A Turkish owned, Vanuatu flagged vessel transporting dry cargo from the Port of Odesa, Ukraine, to Türkiye was attacked last night (28 May) by an unmanned aerial vehicle, resulting in minor injuries to two of our citizens in the crew," it said, adding that the two nationals' condition was being monitored by Turkey's Consulate General in Odesa. Ankara said it had conveyed its concerns about "war-related escalation" in the Black Sea to "all relevant parties," called on all sides to refrain from steps that could lead to "an uncontrolled escalation," and reaffirmed the need to keep civilian shipping safe. It said Türkiye supported ending the war through negotiations and was ready to develop "region-based and result-oriented measures" to prevent further escalation.

Ukraine's navy attributed the strike directly to Moscow, saying in a Telegram statement that "the Russian Federation carried out a targeted attack on a Turkish vessel" and that two crew members were wounded; Russian authorities did not immediately comment. The hit on the ANT came only hours after a separate wave of drone strikes damaged three Russia-linked tankers off Turkey's northern Black Sea coast, with no casualties reported in those incidents -- two attacks running in opposite directions across the same waterway on the same night.

The Black Sea has been a critical corridor for grain and commercial goods since the start of the war, and Türkiye controls access to it through the Bosporus under the 1936 Montreux Convention. Ankara has repeatedly urged Moscow and Kyiv to avoid endangering civilian ships, warning that spillover risks wider regional instability. The strike fits an intensifying maritime escalation: it coincided with a 232-drone Russian barrage on Ukraine that struck three commercial vessels and cut power to thousands in Odesa, and followed Ukrainian sea-drone attacks on Russian shadow-fleet tankers near the Turkish coast over recent days.