The damaged ship was donated to Ukraine by Belgium last year.

Ukrainian scientists plan to restore a research vessel donated by Belgium, which was damaged due to a Russian missile attack on the port of Odessa.

This was announced at a briefing in Odessa by a marine biologist, head of the National Antarctic Research Center Evgeniy Dikiy.

He noted that now, due to the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, Ukraine does not have the opportunity to conduct appropriate research in the Black Sea. Moreover, the Boris Alexandrov ship, brought to Ukraine last year as part of the EU EMBLAS project and the UN development programme for enhanced monitoring of the Black Sea, was damaged due to a missile attack.

“It’s not just about some kind of scientific expeditions. On the contrary, even the research vessel Boris Alexandrov, brought to Ukraine last year, suffered from arrivals in the port of Odessa. It will have to be repaired and revived after the war . Not to mention many other things…" - said Dikiy.

On July 23, Russia attacked the port of Odessa with Kalibr-type cruise missiles. Two missiles were shot down by Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunners, two hit the infrastructure of the port. The impact caused a fire in the port.