Two of 13 crew dead as corn ship sinks off Romania, and nobody has yet proved what hit it

Thirteen people were aboard the Royad Mammadov when it caught fire in the Black Sea on Monday 5 October. Eleven came out alive. Romania's interior ministry says the other two are dead ¹². That is the one part of the story that nobody disputes in substance. Almost everything else about it, from the cause to the exact count of the dead, still rests on competing accounts.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X at about 12:45 GMT that the ship's captain had been killed, that the fate of one other person was still being established, and that eleven crew had been rescued, one of them injured ¹. Romania counts two dead. The gap may simply be the same two people at different stages of the search. That is our inference. No source states it.

The figures also shifted during the day. An early alert from Romania's Naval Authority said the captain was injured and 13 crew were missing ⁴⁰. That was superseded. Naval Authority spokesperson Irina Puscasu told AFP that three crew were injured and eight unharmed ¹³. Zelensky counted one injured. India's embassy in Bucharest later said two foreign nationals had died and that all three Indian crew were safe, one of them injured and treated at Constanța County Hospital ²⁸.

An Azerbaijani outlet named the dead as the captain, identified only as "Rustam", and the cook, and said the cook's body went down with the ship ²¹. Romanian authorities have not confirmed either name. The crew were Azerbaijani and Indian nationals ¹.

The coast guard was alerted by the maritime rescue centre at Constanța at around 11 a.m. The ship was about 30 nautical miles south of Sfântu Gheorghe, near the Danube delta ⁵. That is inside Romania's exclusive economic zone and outside its territorial waters ⁴. Zelensky called the waters "neutral". That is his own characterisation. A zone where Romania holds economic rights is not the same as open sea, and not the same as Romanian territory either.

The ship was reported near the Pescăruș platform run by OMV Petrom, whose operator said it was working normally ¹⁰. Coast guard vessels and an aviation inspectorate helicopter carried out the rescue, and the helicopter lifted off the injured ⁹.

On cause, the accounts split. Zelensky called it a strike by two Russian drones ¹. Euronews and others reported a drone attack ³. AFP, however, reported that Romanian authorities did not give a cause and did not answer questions on whether a drone was involved ¹³. No wreck examination or investigation finding has been published. The drone attribution is Ukraine's claim, widely repeated. Romania has not confirmed it.

Public vessel data identifies the ship as a general cargo vessel, IMO 9356969, about 139 to 140 metres long and built in 2006 ³⁰. It was flagged in Saint Kitts and Nevis, not Turkey. Its registered owner is the Turkey-based MG Shipping 5 Co Ltd. Azerbaijani media link it to the Palmali group and say it was renamed in 2022 after a serviceman killed in the 2020 Karabakh war ³¹. Tracking data has it carrying corn from Izmail in Ukraine toward Ravenna in Italy ³⁰. No official has confirmed that cargo or route.

Russia has not commented on this ship. Its defence ministry said earlier on Monday that it had struck two Ukrainian cargo vessels, one carrying military equipment at Chornomorsk and another carrying military supplies south of Odesa ²⁵. It named no vessel. The locations differ from where the Royad Mammadov sank, and nothing public ties either claim to it. Treat the two as unrelated until someone shows otherwise.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha condemned the strike as cynical, pointing to Turkey's role in Black Sea diplomacy ¹⁵. We found no dedicated statement on this ship from the Turkish or Azerbaijani foreign ministries. India's embassy said it was assisting its citizens ²⁸.

Two things can be said plainly. A merchant ship carrying food sank in a NATO and EU member's economic zone with two seafarers dead, and Bucharest has confirmed that much. And the one explanation on offer comes from a belligerent. Zelensky has every reason to present the loss as Russian terror, and may well be right. But a claim from one side of the war is not a finding, and the one government placed to examine the evidence has declined to say.

The wider pattern gives the claim some context without proving it. Turkey's Chamber of Maritime Commerce (IMEAK) has said 226 civilian and commercial vessels have been attacked in the Black Sea since the war began, most of them this year. That is a trade-body figure and we have not verified it. Russia has framed recent Black Sea strikes as retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on its refineries and shipping.