Russia claims it has no information about an attack late on Wednesday against a ship carrying Ukrainian wheat in the Black Sea.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the country’s navy on Thursday accused Russia of targeting and hitting the 27,300-dwt Aya (built 1997) with a missile.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, however, professed to ignore the affair.
“The Kremlin is not familiar with accusations from Kyiv that Russia allegedly attacked a grain ship in the Black Sea,” Tass news agency reported on Friday, citing Peskov.
None of the Aya’s crew of 23 Syrian seafarers came to harm in the incident, which Ukraine blamed on a Kh-22-type Russian missile launched from a Tu-22 aircraft.
The incident has, nevertheless, caused concern about the seaborne grain exports of Ukraine, which have been going on surprisingly smoothly since the war-torn country managed to establish a maritime corridor in August last year despite threats by Moscow to disrupt it.
More than 2,000 ship voyages have been recorded out of the Ukrainian ports of Odesa, Yuzhny/Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk since.
During this entire period, only one vessel was hit in the corridor by a missile, while in port in Yuzhny.
According to official Ukrainian statements on Thursday, the Aya was hit at 11:03 pm on Wednesday while sailing for three hours outside official corridor boundaries, just after leaving Ukrainian waters.
It had been en route to Egypt with more than 26,000 tons of cargo from Chornomorsk.
Initial news reports spread by some maritime media that the ship was sailing in Romanian territorial waters when it was hit have been debunked.
Officials at VRS Shipmanagement, a Dubai-based company with offices in Piraeus that is listed as Aya’s manager, did not respond to a request for comment.
According to information from Ukrainian sources, the Saint Kitts and Nevis-flagged ship is operated by Turkey-based Jasmine Shipping Co.
The ship is currently outside the Romanian port of Constanta.
According to the Ukrainian military, the material damage caused to the ship is “significant”.
Pictures posted by Zelenskyy show extensive damage caused to the vessel bow at deck level.
