India Tells Seafarers To Assess Risk Before Taking Black Sea Ship Jobs After Five Deaths

India has advised its seafarers to weigh security risks carefully before accepting employment on commercial vessels operating in or transiting the Black Sea, after five Indian seafarers were killed in attacks on merchant ships since April 2026.

The advisory issued by the Ministry of External Affairs on 26 July describes the security situation in the Black Sea and adjoining maritime areas as highly volatile because of the continuing Russia-Ukraine conflict, with commercial vessels in those waters facing significant risks from missile and drone attacks.

The warning was published on the same day the Embassy of India in Ukraine confirmed that four Indian nationals were on board the merchant vessel AGN Ragnar when it was struck at the Port of Odesa, with two of them confirmed safe and information still awaited on the remaining two while search and rescue operations continued.

Four of the five Indian nationals aboard the bulk carrier Golden Leo were killed and a fifth was hospitalised in critical condition when the vessel was attacked on the evening of 19 July while departing Odesa with a cargo of grain, according to the MEA, which said 17 crew members were on board at the time and that eight were evacuated to a hospital in the city.

The Ukrainian Navy attributed the strike to three cruise missiles, one of which it said hit the starboard side of the Guinea-Bissau-flagged ship’s superstructure and started a fire, while the Russian Ministry of Defence stated that its forces had struck Ukrainian ports and vessels operating in the interests of Ukraine’s armed forces. The MEA condemned the attack without assigning responsibility for it.

A day earlier, the commercial vessel OMORFI was attacked while transiting the Black Sea in what the MEA described as reportedly Russian territorial waters, killing one of the three Indian nationals among its 10 crew members, with the other two reported safe.

The Directorate General of Maritime Administration had already instructed Indian-flagged vessels and foreign-flagged ships employing Indian crew to exercise the highest degree of caution in the region in an advisory issued on 23 July, which called for voyage-specific security risk assessments before entry and counted 10 attacks since April involving Indian seafarers serving aboard foreign-flagged ships.

Seafarers who still take up such assignments have been asked to obtain full information from employers, recruitment agencies and ship operators on the intended route, ports of call, security arrangements, insurance cover and emergency response procedures, and to confirm that their terms of employment meet applicable international maritime standards and provide for medical care, evacuation, repatriation and compensation. The ministry also asked them to keep families informed of their itineraries, maintain regular contact, follow instructions issued by vessel operators, and use the emergency numbers published for the Indian embassies in Russia and Ukraine.

India is among the largest suppliers of crew to the world fleet, with more than 320,000 active seafarers recorded in 2025 and Indian nationals accounting for roughly 12 percent of the global seafaring workforce according to figures cited by the Directorate General of Shipping, and the overwhelming majority of them sail aboard foreign-flagged tonnage.

The Black Sea advisory follows the regulator’s instruction earlier in July asking Indian and foreign shipowners not to deploy Indian seafarers on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, and a June circular restricting their deployment to conflict areas in the Gulf region except for emergency crew changes made with the seafarer’s consent. New Delhi summoned Russia’s ambassador after the Golden Leo attack, and the Indian mission in Kyiv said it remains in contact with Ukrainian authorities over the two seafarers still unaccounted for from the AGN Ragnar.

Reference: Deccan Chronicle/ANI