Five cargo ships hit by drones off Novorossiysk and Tuapse
Between August 17 and 18, at least five merchant vessels linked to the grain trade were attacked near the two Russian Black Sea ports. A Greek bulk carrier was nearly destroyed by fire: all twenty-one crew members on board were saved.
The northern Black Sea has once again become a stretch of water where sailing means running a measurable risk. Between August 17 and 18, at least five cargo ships engaged in the grain trade were attacked by drones near the Russian ports of Novorossiysk and Tuapse: this is reported by Safety4Sea.
The most serious case involves the bulk carrier Anna S, flying the Liberian flag and Greek-owned. The ship was sailing empty toward Novorossiysk to load grain and was hit five times; the fire that followed nearly destroyed it completely. The twenty-one crew members — twenty Filipinos and a Romanian captain — abandoned the ship and were rescued by the Elina B, flying the Maltese flag. The incident is reported by The Moscow Times and by Marine Insight, whose accounts trace back to the same primary source and therefore count, for this newspaper, as a single one.
The previous day, the tanker Skiros had been attacked after loading Russian crude oil at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal. Further back on the calendar, on August 3, the Turkish ro-ro ferry Nadezhda had been hit about twenty miles off Novorossiysk: three of the twenty-two crew members were seriously injured, as reported by Splash247.
Who carried out the attacks. None of the sources used in this article attribute the attacks to a specific party, and this newspaper does not fill the gap with speculation. The only thing that can be ascertained from the available material is the means — drones — and the geography: the waters off two Russian port terminals, one of which is the main sea outlet for grain and crude oil from the Caspian basin.
Why it matters to those who do not sail. The ports involved lie on one of the densest agricultural routes on the planet. The ships hit were engaged in the grain cycle — one heading to load, others in the same trade — and a tanker had just loaded at the Caspian consortium terminal. A recurring risk along that stretch translates, for operators, into three concrete effects already known to the industry: insurance premiums, crew availability and berthing times. None of the sources used here quantifies these effects, and in the absence of data we do not estimate them.
The human factor. The count of people is the only figure that can be aligned with precision: twenty-one seafarers rescued from the Anna S, three seriously injured out of twenty-two on the Nadezhda. These are multinational crews — Filipinos, a Romanian captain, personnel aboard a Turkish ship — working for Greek and Turkish shipowners under Liberian and Maltese flags. The corporate geometry of the merchant marine means that an attack in Russian waters simultaneously involves registries, shipowners and crew nationalities spread across three continents.
What we do not know. We do not know the names of the other ships hit in the August 17-18 window besides those mentioned, nor the extent of the damage to the Skiros. There is no record, in the available material, of a statement from Russian port authorities on the operational status of the Novorossiysk and Tuapse terminals after the attacks, nor any figures on the volumes of grain actually handled in the following days.
The next verification will be statistical in nature: traffic data from the two ports and statements from the maritime authorities of the countries whose crews and ships are involved. Until then, the confirmed figures remain five ships attacked in two days, twenty-one people evacuated and three seriously injured on August 3.
Sources: Safety4Sea, The Moscow Times and Marine Insight (a single origin between these two), Splash247.
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