OMM Newsroom
Romanian authorities are searching for crew members missing after an incident involving a ship in the Black Sea. Romanian President Nicușor Dan linked the incident to what he described as Russian escalation, AnewZ reported.
The 13-member crew included 10 Ukrainians and three Azerbaijani citizens. Nine were rescued, and one death was confirmed.
The incident is the latest in a series of incidents in the Black Sea involving Russian and Ukrainian forces. Ukraine has stepped up attacks on ships and infrastructure used to export Russian oil and grain since Russia intensified missile and drone strikes in July on Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, Ukraine’s main grain-export ports.
Azerbaijani sailors have also been killed in attacks in the Black Sea this year. In September, two Azerbaijani sailors died when a foreign cargo ship they were travelling on came under a drone attack, according to Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In June, five Azerbaijani crew members were killed and three others injured in a nighttime drone attack on the cargo ships “Natra” and “Zircon” in Taganrog Bay in the Sea of Azov, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
More than half a million people left without power in Ukraine
More than 500,000 people were without electricity overnight after Russian strikes on energy infrastructure in western, central and southern Ukraine, Energy Minister Artem Nekrasov said.
Emergency work is under way to restore power supplies. Nekrasov said ongoing Russian attacks were complicating the work. The affected regions he listed were Zhytomyr, Volyn, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Khmelnytskyi and Rivne.
Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said one of its thermal power plants had been hit and had suspended operations because of serious damage. The company did not identify the plant’s location.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had also struck the port of Vylkove in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, a cargo ship in the Black Sea and a railway depot in the Poltava region of central Ukraine.
Two killed in Ukrainian attacks
Ukrainian attacks have killed two people and injured four others in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region, according to the governor appointed by Moscow.
Ukrainian drone attacks also hit an industrial facility in Russia’s Perm region, near the Ural Mountains. Regional Governor Dmitry Makhonin wrote on Telegram that emergency services were working at the site and no one had been injured.
During the latest series of attacks, a Russian tanker carrying diesel fuel was heading toward New York, Reuters reported. Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to lift a ban on diesel exports after reaching an agreement with U.S. President Donald Trump on October 9.
The Malta-flagged vessel, carrying 40 million kilograms of Russian diesel, is expected to arrive in the United States on November 7.
