Russia has attacked a Chinese ship headed for a Ukrainian port, Volodymyr Zelensky has said, a move which could anger Beijing one day before a summit between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.
The Russian drone struck the KSL DEYANG vessel flying under Marshall Islands flag off the coast of Ukraine early on Monday, a source earlier told Reuters news agency.
The vessel was did not contain cargo and was bound for Ukraine’s Pivdennyi port in the Odesa region where it was to load iron ore concentrate. Although a fire was sparked, the vessel was not seriously damaged and no one was injured.
“The Russians could not have been unaware of what vessel was at sea,” Mr Zelensky said.
Xi and Putin exchanged “congratulatory letters” on Sunday ahead of the latter’s visit to Beijing, just four days after Donald Trump left China after a high-stakes summit.
It comes after Russia faced one of its biggest attacks of the year as at least 3,124 Ukrainian drones were intercepted and destroyed in the past week, the country’s defence minister said this morning.
Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks are “entirely justified” in a post on X.
