The complaint names Ukraine as the attacker. Nuri Koray Kurun, the lawyer acting for the complainants, said the application could set a precedent for attacks on merchant ships and that the evidence is Ukraine’s own: “Concrete information and images showing that the attack originated from Ukraine exist. In the second half of 2024 they launched an operation named Moloka. Videos of this operation, which targets trade routes in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov with unmanned vehicles, and images of the moment our ship was hit, were openly shared on official social media accounts.”
Under the court’s procedure the prosecutor first assesses whether the events fall within its jurisdiction, whether the application is admissible and whether the elements of a crime under the Rome Statute are present; only after that would a decision on an investigation follow, and only an investigation that finds sufficient evidence would bring a judicial stage. That is DenizHaber’s account of the road ahead. The shipowner, T ve O Denizcilik, announced in mid-August that it was collecting powers of attorney to file.
Loaded with coal from Russia’s Taman port for Trabzon, the Reyhan Sari, a dry-cargo ship, was hit off Novorossiysk on 22 July; Cakar, working in the engine room, died and other crew were wounded. Since then the same waters have taken the Anna S off Novorossiysk on 17 August, the salvage tug Tedy near Odesa on 9 September with 2 Azerbaijani crew dead, and the Turkish Ro-Ro Lionfish on 13 September.
At 09:07 Moscow time Interfax carried the defence ministry’s statement that Geran-4 “Siker” drones had struck 3 dry-cargo vessels and a ferry in the port of Chornomorsk in the Odesa region, ships it said were carrying cargo for the Ukrainian army. On Wednesday the ministry had claimed dry-cargo vessels in the same port. Neither statement names a ship.
Since then the same waters have taken the Anna S off Novorossiysk on 17 August, the salvage tug Tedy near Odesa on 9 September with 2 Azerbaijani crew dead, and the Turkish Ro-Ro Lionfish on 13 September.
The ministry’s overnight tally, published 5 minutes earlier, was 641 drones over 18 regions, Krasnodar territory, the Moscow region, Crimea and the Azov, Caspian and Black seas. Novorossiysk is where more than 80% of Kazakhstan’s oil exports leave through the CPC terminal; the consortium’s channel has carried no operational statement since 30 July.
Ankara’s press-release index stood at No: 181 on Thursday, a statement on the Houthi drone attack on Saudi Arabia dated Wednesday. Nothing has appeared on the Tedy in 8 days; the foreign minister’s line, given in Baku on Tuesday, is that the war’s spread to the Black Sea is unacceptable.