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A Russian missile strike on a ship carrying corn near Ukraine's southern port of Odesa killed 10 people, Ukrainian officials said on Monday, in the deadliest attack in a weeks-long flare-up of violence in the Black Sea.
Russia hit the Golden Leo — a Guinea-Bissau-flagged ship manned by a crew from India and Syria — with three cruise missiles, causing a fire on Sunday, Ukraine's navy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
A Reuters witness in Odesa saw smoke billowing from a vessel off the coast on Sunday, which Reuters was able to confirm was the Golden Leo.
A search and rescue operation lasted all night, Ukraine's seaports authority said, adding that nine crew members and one of its maritime pilots were killed. Eight of the vessel's 17 crew members were rescued.
A separate Russian attack on Odesa, Ukraine's largest seaport, killed three people and wounded three others on Monday, according to Serhiy Lysak, head of the city's military administration. He said infrastructure facilities came under attack but gave no further details.
A woman stands near an apartment building hit by a Russian airstrike, in the Ukrainian town of Pavlohrad, Dnipropetrovsk region. (Reuters)
Meanwhile, Russia on Monday accused Ukraine of killing five civilians, including a minor, in a drone attack on a bus in Russia's Belgorod region and said three other civilians were in hospital in critical condition.
Alexander Shuvayev, the governor of the Belgorod region, said in a statement on Telegram that 23 civilians had been injured in the attack.
"It is with a heavy heart that I report: according to preliminary data, five innocent civilians, including a minor, were killed as a result of this inhuman and despicable attack: four women and a boy died from their injuries," he said.
Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
The Belgorod region borders Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region and has come under regular attack from Kyiv's forces since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into its neighbour at the start of 2022. Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilians.
A warehouse complex that, according to local authorities, was damaged in a recent Ukrainian drone attack in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in shown Domodedovo in the Moscow area. Elsewhere in Russia, officials said several people died in an attack in Belgorod. (Reuters)
Black Sea attacks ramp up again
The Black Sea was a flashpoint of the early months of the war. But under a deal meant to ease global price shocks and allow both countries to ship grain, shipping had largely resumed.
Moscow and Kyiv, however, are now stepping up attacks in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov and targeting key revenue sources.
Ukrainian forces have hit Russian energy infrastructure, including oil tankers, while Russia is intensifying its attacks on Ukraine's deepwater ports and cargo vessels.
Golden Leo is owned by Mumbai-based Ocean Grace Shipping Ltd, according to LSEG data. Its manager, Friends Shipping Co SA, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Russia's defence ministry said on Monday that its forces hit fuel reservoirs at the port of Odesa overnight, Interfax reported.
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Russian strikes have killed 28 people in the Odesa region so far this month, its governor said on Monday.
Both Russia and Ukraine are major grain exporters, and the renewed violence on this route has raised concerns about supply.
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Ukraine, which in recent seasons accounted for about six per cent of global wheat exports and about 11 per cent of global corn exports, has lost about a third of its capacity to export grain via its Black Sea ports due to Russian missile and drone attacks, traders and analysts have said.
The Ukrainian attacks have forced Russia, the world's top grain exporter, to limit shipping in the Sea of Azov — a route that handles about a quarter of its grain exports, sources have told Reuters.