Russian attacks on a merchant ship in southern Ukraine and two others in the Black Sea on Tuesday killed three people, including a ship's captain, a senior Ukrainian official said.
"In the evening, the enemy launched a new attack on port infrastructure in the Odesa region. During the attack, an enemy drone struck a civilian ship flying the flag of the Marshall Islands," said the head of the region's military administration, Oleh Kiper.
"A fire broke out on board. Unfortunately, two people were killed," he said on Telegram.
Earlier, Kiper said two merchant ships, Tanzanian- and Liberian-flagged and sailing in the Black Sea, had also been hit.
"As a result... the captain of one of the ships was killed," he said, adding that the remaining crew of 11 had been evacuated, of whom three were wounded.
Kiper said the ships targeted in the Black Sea were sailing along corridors designated for the export of Ukrainian grain.
"Each of these cynical enemy strikes constitutes a war crime against peaceful populations, civilian shipping, and global food security," he said.
The Russian army regularly targets Ukrainian port infrastructure, particularly in the Odesa region.
Ukrainian forces have meanwhile stepped up attacks on ships in the Sea of Azov, which serves as an important conduit for Russian agricultural products as well as for supplying annexed Crimea.
