The damaged Turkish flagged Lider Bordo Mavi container ship is parked at the Trabzon port after being attacked near the Russian port of Tuapse, in the province of Trabzon on September 15, 2026. (AFP Photo)
They’d just had breakfast when a huge blast brought the crew of the Turkish fishing boat racing out onto main deck, where they were standing when the second strike hit.
“There was fire and smoke, the blast lifted us up and threw us left and right, it was very powerful,” said Ahmet Özlü, 40, one of five fishermen on board the Turkish-flagged Duru 67 that was hit by a drone off Crimea on June 5.
Such attacks on commercial vessels have multiplied in recent months as the Russia-Ukraine war has spilled into the Black Sea, with Turkish ships increasingly in the firing line.
A fire broke out and the boat began taking on water, so the fishermen rushed to the bridge where they found their captain and childhood friend Cüneyt Varlık, 45, lying in a pool of his own blood, his carotid artery severed by shrapnel.
The attack was never claimed but the Turkish coastguard told them it was a Ukrainian drone which hit them “by mistake,” he said.
“We never thought Ukraine would hit us because our flag was raised. We are civilians, our boat doesn’t carry weapons,” said his older brother, Mehmet Özlü, who suffered extensive internal and external injuries.
Both deeply traumatized, neither brother has been back out to sea due to their injuries, Mehmet explained while helping mend nets in the northeastern port of Trabzon.
“I still ask myself why Ukraine hit people like us, Turkish civilians. As a state, they owe us an answer and compensation because this has ruined my and my children’s future,” he said.
Despite its ties with both Russia and Ukraine, Türkiye has been infuriated by the violence, accusing the warring sides of “attacking all commercial shipping without distinction.”
“The recent attacks on commercial vessels in the Black Sea are unacceptable, regardless of who is responsible for them,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Sept. 22.
Since the start of the war, 226 civilian and commercial vessels have been attacked in the Black Sea, the vast majority this year, Türkiye’s Chamber of Maritime Commerce (IMEAK) says.
“The fact that 163, more than 70 percent, were targeted in the first eight months of 2026 clearly shows the gravity of the situation,” IMEAK chairman Tamer Kiran said on Aug. 27.
Of that number, 22 Turkish-owned vessels were attacked in the preceding two months, he said. Four more have been hit since then, industry sources say.
Earlier this month, a Turkish defense source said “almost 90 ships” were hit in August, with a Turkish diplomat telling AFP last week Ankara had reached out with a fresh proposal.
Confirming the approach, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the sides had come back with “demands and positions that are difficult to reconcile.”
The Turkish Maritime Workers’ Platform has accused Russia and Ukraine of blatant disregard for civilian lives.
“Both states are disregarding the lives of seafarers solely to undermine each other’s economic interests,” spokesman Ahmet Baran Can told AFP.
Torun said many sailors were refusing Black Sea jobs.
“If the ship gets hit, the shipowner gets insurance money, and if it doesn’t, he earns 10 times what he’d get in Europe. But we’re the ones on board who get hit.”
