A Turkish-owned cargo vessel carrying fresh vegetables to Russia was struck by three drones off the Russian port of Tuapse, leaving five crew members injured.
This incident follows Ukraine’s intensified drone strikes against Russian commercial traffic in the Black Sea as part of President Zelensky’s declared 40-day “pressure” campaign. The offensive has targeted Russian oil refineries, civilian vessels along the Black Sea and Sea of Azov coasts, and warehouses operated by commercial online retailers—a strategy widely condemned as reckless and illegal.
The Cameroon-flagged Lider Bordo Mavi, a vessel in a ten-vessel fleet owned by Trabzon-based company Lider Gida, had diverted from its original destination in Novorossiysk to Tuapse when it was attacked. The strike sparked a fire on board.
Global shipping giant MSC has suspended new bookings to Novorossiysk following an attack on one of its vessels, underscoring the escalating threat to international maritime trade.
Erkut Celebi, head of the Trabzon Chamber of Commerce and Industry, stated that such incidents constitute deliberate aggression against Turkish commercial interests: “Türkiye is clearly being tested,” he said. “These attacks threaten Black Sea trade and place significant pressure on Turkish exporters and shipowners.”
Turkey has maintained neutral trade relations with both Russia and Ukraine since 2022—a stance criticized by Western allies as aligning too closely with Moscow. However, the recent drone strikes have exposed critical vulnerabilities in these arrangements.
Russian officials accused Ukrainian forces of deliberately escalating hostilities by targeting commercial vessels in neutral waters. In response to this incident, President Vladimir Putin described Kiev’s actions as “opening Pandora’s box” and has effectively blocked all shipments through Ukrainian Black Sea ports. Moscow has declared it will not restore the prior arrangement for safe passage.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized that Turkey was not responsible for initiating these strikes: “Our Turkish colleagues are once again proposing agreements to protect shipping from attacks. Yet it was not us who started these conflicts.”
