The Ministry of External Affairs on Monday (July 27, 2026) summoned Ukraine’s ambassador to India, Oleksandr Polishchuk, and expressed “serious concerns” over the July 18 attack on a ship that led to the death of an Indian seafarer. The Embassy of Ukraine, in a response, said that Foreign Minister of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha has sent a letter of condolence to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar over the incident.

It added that “immediate response to any preventive warnings” regarding the situation in the Black Sea and nearby regions can help in minimising security risks from Russia’s military operations.

“The Ministry conveyed its serious concerns over the incident and condemned such attacks on commercial shipping in the strongest terms, underscoring their adverse impact on the safety of maritime navigation, freedom of navigation, and international commerce,” the MEA said in a press note.

“The Ambassador was requested to convey to the Ukrainian authorities India’s strong concerns over the targeting of commercial vessels and reiterated that such actions, which endanger the lives of innocent civilian seafarers, are unacceptable and must be avoided,” said the MEA about the attack on the MV OMORFI that it described as a ‘commercial vessel’.

This is the first time that the Ambassador of Ukraine has been summoned to the MEA since the attacks on foreign-flagged ships intensified in the Black Sea and in nearby maritime regions. Earlier, the Ministry had summoned the Russian Embassy’s chargé d’affaires after MV Golden Leo, a Guinea-Bissau-flagged ship, was hit by projectiles on July 19 that led to the death of 10 seafarers, including four Indian citizens. Mr. Jaishankar met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the 21^st East Asia summit in Manila on July 22, where he expressed “strong concerns” regarding the safety of Indian citizens in the maritime front of the Russia-Ukraine war.

The MEA had, on July 24, confirmed the death of an Indian national in the attack on MV OMORFI, saying that the vessel had a crew of 10 with at least three Indian seafarers in the team and that the ship was hit in the Russian territorial waters. However, its statement had stopped short of describing which of the warring sides had hit the ship. Regarding the fact that the details of the attack of July 18 took several days to be confirmed, official sources said that information about attacks on foreign-flagged ships, on occasions, may take some time to be confirmed and verified.

The sources further said that India has around 3.20 lakh citizens employed as seafarers across the world, with the vast majority of them working on foreign-flagged ships. They also drew attention to the latest advisory, issued on July 26, that urged Indian seafarers to exercise caution while accepting assignments on merchant vessels.

‘Consistent warning’

In a statement issued after the summoning of the Ambassador of Ukraine, the Embassy of Ukraine said that “throughout the war, Ukraine has consistently warned its international partners, including senior Indian officials, about the growing threats to civilian navigation arising from Russia’s actions in the Black Sea.” Ukraine, the statement said, has kept its international partners informed about the “measures it is taking to prevent the delivery of military cargo and disrupt logistical routes used to sustain Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine”. The Embassy said Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has sent a letter of condolence to Mr. Jaishankar regarding the July 18 incident.

“We hope that, following the relevant proposal made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, a conversation between the foreign ministers of our two countries will take place in the nearest future to discuss in detail the current security situation in the Black Sea region,” the Embassy of Ukraine said in the statement.