Q24N – Three Panamanian-flagged ships have been hit by Russian missiles in the Black Sea since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month, which caused the sinking of one of the ships, Panama’s Maritime Authority said on Wednesday.
“We know that we had three vessels (with the Panamanian flag) that were attacked by Russian missiles, but the crew is all safe,” the administrator of the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP), Noriel Araúz.
“There were no casualties reported. The two others remain afloat with damages,” the official added.
The three affected ships were Namura Queen, Lord Nelson and Helt. The AMP did not give the dates of when the ships were hit.
Araúz also denounced that “the Russian navy” does not allow between 200 and 300 ships from different parts of the world to “leave the Black Sea”.
Among these ships, there are a dozen with a Panamanian flag, mainly for the transport of grains, and about 150 crew members of different nationalities, according to Araúz.
Panama has the largest registry of flagged ships in the world, exceeding 8,000 vessels, representing 17% of the world’s merchant marine vessels, according to the AMP.
On February 25, after the first attack on a Panamanian flagship, Central American authorities requested “urgently” to avoid navigating Ukrainian and Russian waters in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.