Two bulk carriers belonging to the same Greek shipowner attacked near the ports of Russia and Ukraine

In the Black Sea, two bulk carriers associated with the same Greek business were attacked over the course of several days: ANNA S near Novorossiysk and ANTONIA S near a Ukrainian port.

As a reminder, on August 18, the Liberian-flagged bulk carrier ANNA S was hit approximately 20 nautical miles from Novorossiysk. After the explosion, a fire broke out on the ship.

At the time of the attack, ANNA S was heading to Novorossiysk without cargo to load grain. There were 21 crew members on board – 20 Filipino citizens and a captain from Romania. All sailors were evacuated to another merchant ship.

As the founder of Marelis Navigation S.A. Konstantin Sobol told USM, ANNA S was previously supposed to head to Ukraine, but abandoned the voyage “due to danger” and was later reoriented to Novorossiysk.

Later, Philippine media reported that on August 19, the bulk carrier ANTONIA S was also attacked near one of the Ukrainian ports. According to preliminary data, there was a Filipino crew on board. The fate of the ship and the crew is currently unknown.

As Konstantin Sobol adds, formally the ships belong to different owner companies – Neptune Tradebulk and Brothers Power Shipping, but the ultimate beneficiary of both is the ship-owning company Bright Navigation.

Thus, within a few days, two ships associated with one Greek beneficiary were damaged on different sides of the Black Sea – one near the Russian port, the other near the Ukrainian one. According to Konstantin Sobol, this refutes the false narrative spread by the Greek media: supposedly “only Ukraine attacks the Greek fleet in the Black Sea”.

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