A chemical tanker was hit by shelling in the Black Sea near Ukraine, forcing 10 sailors to leap overboard and seriously injuring two.
The Millennial Spirit, a Moldova-flagged vessel, burst into flames in neutral waters on Friday and its lifeboats were destroyed, the nation’s naval agency said on its website. The sailors, who abandoned ship wearing lifejackets, were rescued by Ukrainian authorities.
The back-to-back assaults show the increasing danger faced by commodity haulers amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine and Russia together account for more than a quarter of the global trade in wheat and about a fifth of corn.