Smoke rises from the grain carrier Golden Leo under the Guinea-Bissau flag after Russian missile strike in the Black Sea close to Odesa, Ukraine. (Photo: AP)
India on Tuesday summoned the Russian Charge d’Affaires (CDA) and conveyed “unequivocal condemnation” and “grave concern” over the deaths of four Indian seafarers in a Russian missile strike on a merchant vessel off the coast of Ukraine.
“Today, the Russian Chargé d’Affaires, Mr Vladimir Ladanov, was summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs. The Ministry conveyed India’s grave concerns and unequivocal condemnation of the attack on the commercial vessel MV Golden Leo on 19 July 2026, which resulted in the tragic loss of four Indian lives, emphasising that such attacks undermine the safety, security and stability of international maritime commerce,” the MEA said in a statement.
“The Russian Chargé d’Affaires was requested to convey India’s strong concerns to his authorities that the targeting of commercial shipping and the resulting loss of innocent civilian lives are unacceptable and must be avoided,” it said.
While India was quick to condemn the attack on Monday, it did not name Russia. The naming, and summoning, of a Russian diplomat on Tuesday is significant, considering Delhi is perceived to be closer to Moscow and has done the diplomatic tightrope walk over the last four years of the Russia-Ukraine war.
While there have been deaths of Indian seafarers in the US-Iran war in West Asia in the last four-and-a-half months, this is the first time that Indian sailors have died in the Russia-Ukraine war.
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According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russian forces launched three Kh-59/Kh-69 cruise missiles, one of which struck the starboard side of the Golden Leo — a Turkish-owned merchant vessel sailing under the flag of Guinea-Bissau — while it was departing Ukraine’s southern port of Odesa on Sunday.
The strike killed 10 people, including four Indians. The MEA had said another Indian sailor was “hospitalised in a critical condition”.
While the Centre is yet to release the names of the dead, two sailors have been identified by their families as Akhil Joyan, 26, a resident of Kasaragod district in Kerala, and Abhishek Nishad, 22, a resident of Deoria district in Uttar Pradesh. Their families have said they were contacted by the shipping firm.
The attack came amid a sharp escalation in Russian strikes on Ukraine’s maritime infrastructure. According to the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA), Russian forces attacked 23 port infrastructure facilities and 17 civilian vessels during the first two weeks of July alone, killing 11 people.
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The repeated attacks have disrupted grain exports, with some ship owners reportedly refusing to send vessels to Ukraine’s Black Sea ports because of the growing security risks.
Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 27 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting and writing explainers and analysis on foreign affairs for about 19 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath.
He won the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award, 2023, for the second time for his reporting of the Oct 7 attacks on Israel and the war in Gaza.
He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More
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Smoke rises from the grain carrier Golden Leo under the Guinea-Bissau flag after Russian missile strike in the Black Sea close to Odesa, Ukraine. (Photo: AP) 
