India summons Russian envoy after four crew members die in Odesa attack

India summoned Russia’s chargé d’affaires in New Delhi after four Indian crew members were killed in an attack on MV Golden Leo as the merchant ship left Odesa port. One more crew member was critically injured, and the Embassy of India in Ukraine was providing assistance to those affected.

The move came on July 21 and sharpened a delicate rupture in India’s approach to Moscow. New Delhi has tried to preserve extensive trade and defense ties with Russia through the war in Ukraine, while also publicly pressing for an end to the fighting. The deaths of Indian nationals at sea pushed that balancing act into a direct test.

The Ministry of External Affairs said attacks on merchant vessels violate freedom of navigation and described the strike as unacceptable. MV Golden Leo was a Guinea-Bissau-flagged merchant ship carrying 17 crew members, including five Indians, when it was struck on July 19. Several Indian outlets identified the vessel by name and said the attack killed 10 people overall.

The incident also showed how vulnerable civilian shipping remains in the Black Sea corridor. Odesa had already been hit by Russian strikes on July 13, July 15 and July 17, a burst of attacks that kept pressure on the port and the wider commercial route used for cargo and grain exports.

For India, the human toll carries policy weight because Indian seafarers make up a significant part of the global shipping workforce. The killing of four crew members, far from home and outside the combatants themselves, raises immediate questions about compensation, repatriation and what protection can be offered to workers sent near a war zone. It also puts Moscow on notice that harm to Indian citizens can no longer be absorbed as a distant side effect of the conflict.