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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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Ukraine has accused Russia of launching an attack on a cargo vessel in the Black Sea, after Romanian authorities said two people had died aboard a cargo ship close to the NATO country's shoreline on Monday.
Another 11 crew members were rescued in a "complex mission" involving coast guard ships and at least one helicopter, Bucharest's interior ministry said in a statement.
Romanian authorities were notified that a fire had broken out on a commercial vessel inside Romania's exclusive economic zone at roughly 11 a.m. local time, the Romanian government said.
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The ship was located around 30 nautical miles south of Sfântul Gheorghe, officials said. The town looks out onto the Black Sea, south of Romania's border with Ukraine.
Romanian media reported the incident took place close to an offshore oil and gas rig near the Romanian coast.
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Bucharest did not specify the cause of the fire, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of launching a "horrific strike" with two drones "on a civilian vessel in neutral waters."
Zelensky said the ship's captain had been killed, with Azerbaijani and Indian citizens also on board the Turkish-owned vessel as it transported corn.
Romania's naval authority identified the ship as the Royad Mammadov and said its captain had been injured, with 13 crew members missing.
Ship trackers shows the Royad Mammadov is a cargo vessel built in 2006, which was en route to Ravenna, a port in northeastern Italy. It was expected to arrive in Italy on October 12, sailing under the flag of St Kitts and Nevis, according to VesselFinder.com.
It stopped at the Ukrainian port of Izmail in mid-September, tracking data shows.
Romania has frequently scrambled fighter jets and condemned drones crossing into its airspace during Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports in the western Black Sea.
Romania shares roughly 400 miles of land border with Ukraine and Izmail sits directly across from Romanian territory. The two countries are separated in this area by the Danube River.
"Russia consistently chooses terror and sinking civilian vessels instead of normal maritime navigation," Zelensky said in a statement. "Pressure is needed to restore global food security."
Russia's Defense Ministry said on Monday it had carried out drone strikes on "Ukrainian port infrastructure and sea vessels involved in delivering military cargo to Ukraine."
Moscow said it had damaged a cargo ship at Port Yuzhny, northeast of Odesa in southern Ukraine.
In an earlier statement, the Russian government said it had hit fuel storage facilities at the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk, southwest of the city of Odesa, and another cargo ship. A third cargo vessel was struck crossing the Black Sea south of the city, the Defense Ministry said.
Moscow and Ukraine have attacked one another's grain and agricultural sites in and around the Black Sea, raising fears about food supplies far beyond the region because both countries are major grain exporters.
Experts say Russia increased its strikes on grain-carrying ships around Ukrainian ports throughout the summer of 2026. The vast majority of Ukraine's grain exports leave the country via ports in the southern Odesa region, bordering Romania.
Ukraine, meanwhile, bombarded Russia's port city of Novorossiysk in mid-August, forcing Russia to redirect its grain exports. Roughly 40 percent of Russia's grain exports pass through Novorossiysk.
"These mutual attacks have made a significant proportion of the world’s wheat trade inaccessible to buyers and threaten global fertilizer trade," the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said last month.
Turkey has reported several drone attacks on Turkish-owned vessels in the Black Sea in recent months, and has said the NATO member is "concerned" about incidents involving these ships, which are often flying the flag of a different nation.
In early August, Turkish authorities said a cargo ship traveling between Novorossiysk and Turkey had been targeted by drones while carrying 13 Turkish nationals. Three Turkish citizens were injured, Turkish media reported.
Turkish officials then said a second Ankara-owned ship had been attacked by drones near Novorossiysk.
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