Ukraine blames Russia for deadly strike on Turkish cargo ship
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Russia reportedly launched three cruise missiles at the Turkish-owned cargo ship Golden Leo as it was leaving the combat zone carrying grain, killing six sailors and a Ukrainian maritime pilot.
PHOTO: ANDRII_SYBIHA/X
KYIV – Ukraine said on July 19 that Russian missile strikes on a Turkish-owned cargo ship carrying grain had killed six people, hours after Moscow fired a fresh barrage of missiles at Kyiv.
Ukraine’s navy said Russia had launched three cruise missiles at the Golden Leo, which flies the flag of Guinea-Bissau, as it was “leaving the combat zone with a cargo of grain”.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that the crew included citizens of Syria and India, while Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said the vessel was struck near Odesa after leaving port.
“Eight crew members were rescued. Two of them were injured. Unfortunately, as of now, six sailors are confirmed dead, and four more are missing,” Kyiv’s Reconstruction, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Mykola Kalashnyk said on Telegram.
Sybiha confirmed a Ukrainian maritime pilot was killed in the attack in a statement on X.
“While the world is still responding to Russia’s brutal overnight attack on Kyiv, Moscow continues its campaign of terror throughout the day,” he added.
Overnight, Russia had fired two dozen ballistic missiles at Kyiv, killing one person and wounding 16, in an ever-escalating air war that is taking an increasing civilian toll on both sides.
On the Russian side, a Ukrainian strike killed one person in the Kursk region, near the Ukrainian border, regional governor Alexander Khinshtein said on Telegram.
Dozens of missiles
AFP journalists in Kyiv saw charred apartment blocks with windows blown out, and mangled, overturned cars.
“The missiles just kept coming one after another, the explosions were powerful, it was horrible,” 47-year-old Kyiv resident Ganna Zagorodnia told AFP.
“I thought that life was just about to end.”
In a statement on social media, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russian attack had been “one of its largest ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv”, launching more than 40 missiles, 25 of them ballistic.
One person had been killed and 16 wounded, he added.
Seven other people were killed in Russian strikes on Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk in the east and Odesa in the south, local officials said.
Russia, which denies targeting civilians, said it struck military facilities and logistics hubs in Kyiv and port infrastructure used by the Ukrainian army in Odesa.
Generals back commander
Ukraine, now in its fifth year of war, faces intensifying Russian missile attacks.
Rescuers clearing debris in a partially destroyed residential building following a Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on July 19.
PHOTO: AFP
In recent days, it has also had to contend with rare domestic political instability triggered by a sudden wartime shake-up of its defence leadership.
Thousands have gathered in big cities across Ukraine over the last few days to protest against the removal of former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
Demonstrators also called for the resignation of Ukraine’s chief commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, who reportedly demanded Fedorov’s dismissal after they clashed over how to counter the Russian invasion.
On July 19, two experienced top Ukrainian generals – the navy and the air assault force chiefs – backed Syrskyi. In rare political statements, they called for unity, arguing that divisions played into the enemy’s hands.
“It is particularly painful to hear peremptory judgments from people who have never issued combat orders, never taken responsibility for the lives and health of the personnel,” said air assault force commander Oleg Apostol, referring to Fedorov’s criticism of Syrskyi.
Navy commander Oleksiy Neizhpapa said: “Doubts about the Armed Forces of Ukraine during wartime are unacceptable.”
Fedorov, 35, who has never served in the army, criticised the military’s slow bureaucracy and lack of flexibility, questioning whether Ukraine could defeat Russia with Syrskyi in charge of its armed forces.
Air defence hunger
Since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, Ukraine has suffered from a shortage of missiles for its US-designed air defence Patriot systems, essential for intercepting ballistic rounds.
Exploiting the shortage, Russia has intensified air raids on Kyiv in recent weeks, launching barrages of ballistic missiles roughly once a week.
“Protection against ballistic missiles is our constant and top priority right now. Interceptors are needed every day,” Zelensky said.
Another drone salvo hit the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s terminal near the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk – a key export route for Kazakh oil, partly owned by Chevron and Shell.
Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry firmly condemned the attack, which it said was designed to “destabilise international trade”.
Kyiv has in recent months intensified strikes on Russian territory, disrupting the lives of ordinary Russians – strikes that it calls retribution for more than four years of bombardments against its territory. AFP
