MOSCOW, April 5 (Reuters) – A Russian official said on Sunday that a cargo ship carrying wheat sank in the Sea of Azov after being attacked by a Ukrainian drone, leaving one person dead and two missing.
Vladimir Sardo, the Moscow-appointed leader of the Russian-controlled region of Ukraine’s Kherson region, said the attack occurred on Friday but that the crew did not know what had happened until Sunday.
“It is known that the sinking of the Volga-Balt in the Sea of Azov was caused by a terrorist attack by the Kiev regime,” Sardo wrote on Telegram.
He said the crew abandoned ship and did not reach shore until Sunday near the village of Strilkove in the Kherson region.
One of the captain’s aides was dead and two were missing, he said, adding that an investigation into the incident was ongoing. The captain is recovering in hospital.
“Unfortunately, this is not the first time Ukraine has attacked a commercial ship in neutral waters. We will respond to this crime,” Sardo said.
In an earlier article, he said nine crew members, all Russian citizens, were found on shore.
Kherson is one of four Ukrainian regions that Russia will annex in 2022, six months after Moscow’s invasion. Russian troops control more than 70% of the territory in the two southern regions of Zaporozhye and Kherson.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldakin; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Christina Finch, Ron Popesky and Mark Porter)
