Drone Strikes Kill 31 Seafarers, Force 19 ED Shipping Vessels to Idle

More than 500 attacks on commercial vessels have been recorded in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov this year, according to maritime risk firm Ambrey. The firm attributes 40 of October's 45 attacks to Russia. At least 31 seafarers have been killed or are missing across nearly 50 vessels targeted this month.

Turkey-based ED Shipping has laid up 19 of its 26 vessels, chief financial officer Demre İşcen said, adding the company is losing millions of dollars each month. Its ship Circon was hit on June 5 in the Sea of Azov, killing two crew members. Ukraine said the vessel carried stolen Ukrainian grain, military cargo and fuel; İşcen said it was heading to load Russian grain.

Chief officer Ashraf Mamdouh, 42, was on the deck of the 123-metre HS Dignity just after 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 13 when the ship was struck. The 16 crew, Syrian and Egyptian nationals, abandoned the vessel. Mamdouh spent four hours in a drifting life raft before the Azov Concord appeared and he signaled with his phone's flashlight. He is among five survivors; 11 remain missing.

Among the missing is 18-year-old Syrian Hamza Suleiman, on his first voyage. His father, Basel, said the young man called on the night of Oct. 12 to say, "Dad, we're in Bulgaria now." Khaldoun Nabelsi of the Syrian Seafarers Association of the U.K. has counted at least 18 Syrian seafarers killed, and said, "If you want to work, you have to go." The Philippine government has barred its citizens from boarding vessels in the northern Black Sea.

NATO has deployed additional patrol boats and radar to the region. Romanian President Nicușor Dan blamed Russia for a Friday drone strike on a Comoros-flagged ship outside Romanian territorial waters that killed one crew member and left three missing. Mamdouh and his surviving crewmates are waiting in Bulgaria for new documents to fly home. "I will not go back to the Black Sea again. Never," he said.