One dead after Ukrainian drone strike sinks cargo vessel in Azov Sea

He said an aide to the captain had died and two people were unaccounted for, adding that an investigation into the incident was under way. The captain was recovering in a hospital.

"This is, unfortunately, not the first instance of Ukraine attacking a merchant ship in neutral waters. There will be a response to this crime," Saldo said.

In an earlier post, he said nine crew members had been found alive on the shore - all Russian nationals.

Kherson is one of four Ukrainian regions annexed by Russia in 2022, more than six months after Moscow's invasion. Russian forces hold a little more than 70 per cent of the two regions, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, in the south.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Christina Fincher, Ron Popeski and Mark Porter)