Drone attack on ship in Black Sea kills 2 Azerbaijanis
Two Azerbaijani crew members were killed and two others injured in a drone attack on a vessel in the Black Sea, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry said on Sept. 10.
The ministry said the foreign vessel TEDY came under drone attack on Sept. 9 but did not identify who was responsible or specify where the attack occurred.
Russia's Defense Ministry separately said Russian drones had struck a vessel near Ukraine's Odesa coast overnight.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry identified those killed as Aslan Aliyev and Asim Gasimov. Two other Azerbaijani citizens, Imran Novruzov and Rauf Aliyev, were injured and hospitalized in the Ukrainian port city of Chornomorsk.
The ministry said it was coordinating with Azerbaijani diplomatic missions and authorities in the countries involved to arrange consular assistance, the return of the injured after treatment and procedures related to the bodies of those killed.
According to ship-tracking data cited by the independent Russian outlet Astra, TEDY is a Somali-flagged tugboat. Its last recorded position was in the Black Sea near the Romanian port of Constanța on Sept. 7.
Russia has intensified attacks on vessels using Ukraine's Black Sea shipping corridor in recent months. Reuters previously reported that Ukraine had proposed a mutual halt to attacks in the Black Sea, but Russia had not responded.
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