War

1601st day. Russia shelled a port in the Odessa region: five sailors from a merchant ship were killed. Ukraine attacks dozens of Russian shadow fleet tankers

Since February 24, 2022, Meduza has been broadcasting live about the Russian-Ukrainian war. We publish your letters every day because we are sure that we need to continue talking about the war. Share with us your thoughts about the war. What feelings are you experiencing? How does war affect your life and your attitude towards the world? If you have a story related to the war, tell it . The feedback form is at the end of this article. A review of the previous day can be read here .

Ukraine

The Russian army today shelled the port infrastructure in the city of Chernomorsk, Odessa region, said the head of the region Oleg Kiper.

As a result, a fire broke out on a Togolese-flagged merchant ship moored at the port. According to Keeper, it was transporting mineral fertilizers. Five crew members were killed and ten more were injured. The nationality of the dead was not specified.

This is at least the third time in the past month that crew members of merchant ships have been killed as a result of Russian attacks. On the night of June 22, a drone attack started a fire on a Turkish cargo ship sailing to Ukraine under the flag of Panama. The ship's cook was killed and eight sailors were evacuated.

Three days earlier, two ships at once came under attack from Russian drones - under the flags of Panama and St. Kitts and Nevis. On the first ship, one person was killed, two more were injured, and on the second, three people were injured.

In turn, the Ukrainian military has recently significantly intensified attacks on Russian tankers and ships with wheat in the Azov Sea region.

The commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert Brovdi (Madyar), said yesterday that over the past week, drones struck 90 Russian merchant ships - he claimed that all of them were part of the so-called shadow fleet of the Russian Federation.

As a result of a series of these attacks, there is at least one death: on July 10, a sailor was killed in a drone attack on four ships “for various purposes” in the Taganrog Bay, reported the head of the Rostov region, Yuri Slyusar.

The largest single number of casualties as a result of Ukrainian Armed Forces strikes since the beginning of summer was recorded on June 5: then Ukrainian drones attacked two ships sailing from Turkey to Rostov-on-Don. Five sailors were killed, all of them were citizens of Azerbaijan.

Attacks on civilian vessels may constitute a criminal offence. “Merchant ships are civilian objects and, as such, are protected from attack unless they meet the criteria that define them as military targets,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in April, after three crew members of a Russian cargo ship were killed in a Ukrainian military drone attack.

The UN then recalled that sailors are civilians and themselves “cannot be the target of deliberate attacks,” and warring parties must take “all necessary precautions” to avoid harming them.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine insists that tankers and ferries are legitimate targets, since tankers are used to transport oil in circumvention of sanctions, and ferries “ensure the transportation of goods in the interests of the Russian Armed Forces.” The Russian military does not comment on its attacks on Ukrainian ships.

War in photographs. Moscow region

Last night and tonight, Ukrainian drones attacked Moscow and the Moscow region. As Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin stated, more than 350 drones were shot down over the region during this period.

In Istra, said the head of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov, a drone fell on the private sector. A fire broke out in five houses, killing three people and injuring three more. In Solnechnogorsk, a drone hit an apartment building, two people were injured.

War through the eyes of Meduza readers

How we choose letters

Meduza's readers live in different countries and have different attitudes towards the war. We publish your letters to see this event through your eyes. Our editors try to present all points of view, even if they do not coincide with the editorial position. However, in accordance with the Meduza code, we do not publish messages that contain “hate speech,” justify the murder of civilians, or express direct support for an aggressive war.

Diana (St. Petersburg) . I started writing and I understand that there is so much I want to say and so much has been said and said every single day, but the question in my head is: “Why? What does this change?

I'm lucky, my whole family and close friends hate the current regime and Putin. Of course, it’s good that there is support around you, but seeing how the eyes of all your loved ones dim, how they stop making long-term plans, trying to adapt rather than live, is painful. Hatred is a terrible feeling; it seems to me that before the war I didn’t really know what it meant.

It hurts to read comments that we are all narrow-minded and do nothing. Even before the war, I went to vote, to Navalny’s rallies in Moscow time. AND? And nothing... Such helplessness, the understanding that they stole my future in my country and did it right before my eyes, and I was unable to influence anything.

Mom is ready to move with me, but dad has a business, a country house, a huge dog, he is 65, and he refuses to start all over again. And my grandmother is 87. I can’t leave alone and fear for them every day, although they fully support me and even before the war they said that I needed to leave this damned land.

I still don’t understand what to do. It is only clear that I will never be the same person I was before 2022. Something in me has died and continues to die every new day of the war. I just cry and pray that people will stop dying for nothing and this madness will stop. Sorry if it came out chaotic. The words just can't be found.

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