Three Indian sailors safe after cargo ship struck and sunk off Romania in Black Sea attack; two dead
New Delhi: Three Indian nationals among the crew of the Turkish cargo ship MV Royad Mammadov are safe, India's embassy in Romania said, after the vessel was struck in the Black Sea on Monday in an attack that left two people dead.
One of the Indians was injured and is being treated at Constanța County Hospital in Romania, the embassy said. "All three Indian nationals are safe. We have spoken to them. One of them has been injured and is receiving medical attention," it said in a statement.
India's Ambassador to Romania, Manoj Mohapatra, spoke with the three crew members at the hospital, according to the embassy, and also with the hospital's chief physician, who confirmed that all three are in good health and receiving necessary care.
The ambassador assured them of all possible assistance and support, the embassy said, adding that it remains in close touch with the hospital authorities and Romanian officials to establish further details on the welfare of the Indian crew.
The two people killed were foreign nationals, according to the mission's preliminary information. It said other crew members were injured and are being treated in Romania.
Zelenskyy blames Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed Russia for the attack, saying on X that two Russian drones struck a civilian vessel in neutral waters. He said the ship was carrying corn, was owned by a Turkish company and had Azerbaijani and Indian citizens on board.
Zelenskyy said the ship's captain was among those killed, offering his condolences, and that the fate of one other person was still being established when he posted. He put the number of rescued crew at 11, one of them injured.
He said Kyiv has repeatedly put forward concrete proposals to ease tensions and secure the Black Sea, and that third countries have made similar suggestions.
Moscow, he said, "consistently chooses terror and sinking civilian vessels instead of normal maritime navigation." Restoring global food security, he added, will require pressure on Russia, and everyone with a real stake in it must help.
What Romanian authorities say
Romania's Interior Ministry said two crew members died and 11 others were rescued by Romanian emergency teams, who responded after the coast guard was alerted to a fire on the ship around 11:00 local time.
A spokesperson for the naval authority, Irina Puscasu, said three of the rescued were injured and eight were unharmed, Romanian media reported.
The injured were airlifted by helicopter, and the ministry called the operation "complex." Romanian authorities did not give a cause for the fire in the details reported.
The Royad Mammadov, a 139-metre cargo ship flagged in Saint Kitts and Nevis, was carrying corn from Ukraine's Danube port of Izmail to Ravenna, Italy, and sank roughly 30 nautical miles south of Sfântu Gheorghe, within Romania's exclusive economic zone, according to Indian and Romanian media reports.
No Russian response had been reported at the time of writing, and the attribution to Russian drones has not been independently confirmed.
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