By Asaye Bankole
Russian forces have launched attacks on two Ukrainian ports, damaging three Turkish-owned vessels, including a ship carrying food supplies, according to Ukrainian officials and a shipowner.
The strikes on Friday targeted the ports of Chornomorsk and Odesa in Ukraine’s southwestern Odesa region along the Black Sea. A spokesperson for the Ukrainian navy told the Reuters news agency that three Turkish-owned vessels were damaged, but provided no further details.
Sharing video footage on social media of firefighters battling a blaze aboard what he described as a “civilian vessel” in Chornomorsk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian attacks had “no military purpose whatsoever.”
“This once again shows that the Russians are not taking the current opportunity for diplomacy seriously and are continuing the war with the aim of destroying normal life in Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.
He added that it was crucial for the world to keep a clear moral perspective: to recognise who is prolonging the war and who is working to end it peacefully, who is using ballistic missiles against civilians, and who is targeting facilities that sustain Russia’s war effort.
Zelenskyy did not name the vessel, but Reuters identified it as the Panama-flagged, Turkish-owned Cenk T after matching cranes and buildings to satellite imagery of Chornomorsk port.
The ship’s owners, Cenk Shipping, said the vessel was attacked at about 4pm local time (14:00 GMT). They confirmed there were no casualties among the crew and that the damage to the ship was limited.
In a separate attack on Odesa port, an employee of a private company was injured and a cargo loader was damaged, according to Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba.
Kuleba said Russia used drones and ballistic missiles in the port strikes, which he described as being “aimed at civilian logistics and commercial shipping”.
Ukraine’s three major Black Sea ports in the Odesa region are a vital economic lifeline for Kyiv.
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