A Turkish car ferry caught fire after being struck in a Russian attack while anchored at the port city of Odesa on Friday, Ukrainian officials and the vessel operator said.
Clips circulating across social media showed an object streaking toward the ship moments before it erupted in flames while anchored near the Black Sea coastline.
“Russia launched a missile strike on civilian port infrastructure in the Odesa region,” Ukraine’s Restoration Minister Oleksiy Kuleba wrote on Telegram, saying that both drones and ballistic missiles were used to hit two separate ports.
Kuleba noted that a Turkish-flagged ferry had been damaged.
Initial reports indicated no casualties, and it remained unclear whether the ship was intentionally targeted.
Cenk Shipping, the Turkish maritime company that owns the ferry, confirmed the incident in a statement, saying its vessel, “loaded entirely with fresh fruits, vegetables and food supplies on the Karasu-Odesa route, was subjected to an air attack today at 16:00 local time, shortly after docking at the Chornomorsk port.”
The company said firefighting crews from both the ship and the port, along with tugboats, responded immediately after flames engulfed the forward section.
Earlier in the day, President Volodymyr Zelensky had posted on X that “a civilian vessel in the port of Chornomorsk was damaged,” referring to one of the three major Black Sea ports in Odesa region.
“This once again proves that the Russians not only refuse to take the current opportunity for diplomacy seriously enough, but are also continuing the war aimed precisely at destroying normal life in Ukraine,” he wrote.
“It is crucial that, under such circumstances, the world maintains the proper moral compass: who is dragging out this war and who is working to end it with peace; who is using ballistic missiles against civilian life, and who is striking the targets that influence the functioning of Russia’s war machine?”
After the strike, Turkey’s foreign ministry stated: “We once again emphasize the importance of urgently ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, and we reiterate the need for an arrangement to prevent escalation in the Black Sea, including ensuring maritime safety and suspending attacks targeting energy and port infrastructure.”
Earlier in December, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan raised the issue of “very scary” Ukrainian attacks on Russian-linked tankers in the Black Sea with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels.
He added that Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria are examining options to reinforce security.
Moscow previously threatened to cut Ukraine off from the sea in response to Kyiv’s drone attacks on Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of tankers used to export oil and bypass sanctions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine’s forces of “piracy” after the strikes and said he would mull “retaliatory measures against the vessels of those countries that assist Ukraine.”