Russia struck a foreign-flagged civilian bulk carrier with cruise missiles as it left Odesa loaded with grain, killing much of its crew, Ukraine's Navy said. Fire broke out aboard the ship, and a search-and-rescue operation ran through the night to reach survivors. Ukrainian officials condemned the strike as another deliberate attack on unarmed civilian shipping.

Three cruise missiles hit the ship as it sailed out

Russian forces fired three Kh-59/Kh-69 cruise missiles at the GOLDEN LEO, a Guinea-Bissau-flagged bulk carrier owned by a Turkish company, as it moved out of the combat zone with a cargo of corn on 19 July, Ukraine's Navy reported. The strike hit the starboard side of the superstructure, and a fire broke out on board.

The missiles came in from the sea. Ukraine's Air Force warned of Russian missiles approaching Odesa and Chornomorsk from the Black Sea in the late afternoon, minutes before explosions were heard in the city. The ship took serious damage but did not sink, the Odesa outlet Dumska showed in photos from the scene, as tugs and rescue crews fought to keep it afloat.

The toll climbed to 10 overnight, including a Ukrainian sea pilot

The death toll rose through the night. The Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA) said 10 people were killed, among them a Ukrainian sea pilot from its Delta-Pilot branch, and that eight crew members were rescued and brought ashore. A sea pilot boards a vessel to guide it safely in and out of port through difficult or dangerous waters.

Eighteen people were on board: crew members from Syria and India, along with the Ukrainian pilot. Eight of the rescued were taken to an Odesa hospital, two of them injured. By Monday, the USPA said the fire aboard the ship had been contained.

Ukraine calls it terror against civilian shipping

The Navy says the strike was an act of terror and a violation of the laws of war. 

"This is another deliberate Russian strike on an unarmed civilian vessel under a foreign flag that posed no military threat," it said. "The attack is an act of terror against peaceful shipping and a gross violation of international humanitarian law."

Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi instructed the Foreign Ministry to immediately inform the states whose citizens were affected and Ukraine's international partners. The government and military command are separately preparing measures meant to strengthen the safety of shipping and shield civilian vessels and sailors from Russian attacks.

The strike lands in a month when Russia has been hammering the Odesa ports that carry the overwhelming share of Ukraine's farm exports. Russian forces have repeatedly gone after foreign-flagged ships moving through the maritime corridor, and used Geran-4 drones against grain carriers at Chornomorsk earlier in July.

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Botswana has become the latest African country to accuse Russia of tricking its citizens into fighting against Ukraine, luring them abroad with fake job offers and then forcing them into combat, Bloomberg reported. The government told its people to treat foreign work offers with suspicion, warning that the scheme is spreading fast. The move echoes alarms raised across the continent as Russia scours Africa for soldiers to feed its war.

Botswana sounds the alarm on a recruitment trap

Botswana's Ministry of International Relations issued the warning in a statement on 18 July. It said a growing number of its nationals are being coerced into Russian military service, and urged everyone to confirm that any overseas job offer is real before accepting it.

The ministry described people drawn out of the country under false pretenses, only to be pushed onto the battlefield once they arrive.

"The number of Batswana being misled into such arrangements is rising at an alarming rate," the ministry said, using the term for Botswana's citizens. It added that it "continues to receive heartbreaking calls from Batswana already on the front line, describing the perilous conditions they face."

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Botswana joins Kenya and South Africa

The warning places Botswana alongside other African states that have traced the same pipeline. In  Kenya and South Africa, prosecutors have already detained and charged suspects accused of funneling recruits into Moscow's ranks.

The European Parliament went further in March, condemning the practice as human trafficking and describing recruits who were deceived, stripped of their documents, and treated as expendable.

The toll is already counted in the dead

The recruitment has a body count. Inpact, the nonprofit behind the All Eyes On Wagner project, reported in February that Russia's war has already claimed at least 316 African lives, with most of the dead sent to the front barely trained.

Kenya, on its own, has put at 1,000 the number of its nationals swept into Moscow's military.