Fifteen sailors, including 13 Indians, are trapped in a “terrible and life-threatening situation” at the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk with missile and drone attacks in the area, the Forward Seamen’s Union of India said on Tuesday.
The port is located on the Black Sea coast.
The crew of the Tanzania-flagged merchant vessel AMIR1 is “living under constant fear of a direct hit at any moment”, the union said.
The organisation urged the authorities, the shipowner, the country where the vessel is registered and New Delhi to “immediately secure their safety and arrange prompt repatriation”.
Indian seafarers must not be left as “sitting targets” in conflict zones, the union said.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has not yet commented on the matter.
Several vessels with Indians on board have been struck in the region this month.
On Sunday, the Indian embassy in Kyiv said that a ship with four Indians on board was struck by a projectile at the Odesa port in Ukraine. While two of the Indian seafarers are safe, “information is awaited regarding the other two”, the embassy said.
The incident came days after four Indians were killed and one critically injured after a cargo ship was attacked while it departed the port of Odesa on July 19. The five Indians were among the 17 crew on board the ship.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha had accused Russia of attacking the vessel inside his country’s maritime corridor. The incident came amid the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, triggering the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.
On July 21, the external affairs ministry said that it had summoned the Russian chargé d’affaires to convey “India’s grave concerns and unequivocal condemnation” of the attack on the vessel.
Three days later, the ministry stated that an Indian seafarer had been killed in an attack on a cargo ship in the Black Sea on July 18. The incident occurred when the merchant vessel Omorfi was passing through the sea and was reportedly in Russian territorial waters.
On July 28, New Delhi summoned Ukrainian ambassador Oleksandr Polishchuk in connection with the attack on Omorfi. The minister said that it had conveyed its “serious concern” about the incident.
MEA’s advisory
Stating that vessels in and around the Black Sea are facing significant security risks, the Ministry of External Affairs on Sunday advised Indians employed or planning to undertake employment in the region to “carefully assess the security risks before accepting such assignments”.
It also asked those who choose to work on vessels operating in conflict zones to obtain information from employers regarding the vessel’s intended route, ports of call, security arrangements, insurance coverage and emergency response procedures.
On July 23, the authority had asked Indian seafarers to report any security incident or suspicious activity on the DGCOMM Centre, which is the Directorate General of Shipping’s maritime communication, coordination and crisis response portal.
Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.
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