Prateek Tanmay
4 min readLucknowJul 29, 2026 05:40 PM IST
For the past four days, Ram Chandra Dubey’s family in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, has been anxiously waiting for any news of him.
The 22-year-old seaman has been missing since July 25 after the merchant vessel he was on — MV AGN Ragnar — came under attack near Ukraine’s Port of Odesa. He is among two Indian crew members who remain unaccounted for after the incident.
This was his second assignment at sea since joining the merchant navy, said his family.
His elder sister, Seemakashi Pandey, said they last saw Ram before he left on September 25 last year. “He would call home frequently to check on everyone. The last time he spoke to our mother, Kalpana Dubey, was on the night of July 24. He told her the ship had departed from Ukraine,” she said.
The next day, they received a phone call from an employee of the shipping company that had employed Ram. “The company representative said the vessel had come under a drone attack near the Port of Odessa on July 25 and four Indian crew members jumped into the Black Sea — one of them was my brother,” Seemakashi said.
“We were told the Ukrainian Navy rescued two of them, but two others, including my brother, remain missing,” she said.
Since then, the family has looked everywhere for help.
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“At first, we tried to gather information sitting in Prayagraj but we realised we had no way of tracing Ram from here,” said his brother-in-law, Anuj Kumar Pandey.
On July 27, Ram’s elder brother, Krishna Das Dubey, accompanied by two cousins, travelled to Delhi. “They met officials of the shipping company, who told us they were making efforts to locate the missing crew members, but we have not received a concrete update,” said Anuj.
Ram hails from Nivi Kala village and is the younger of two sons. His father, Ramesh Chandra Dubey, is a retired Armyman.
Seemakashi said the family has submitted urgent representations to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of External Affairs, seeking diplomatic intervention to help trace Ram.
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On Tuesday, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said India was coordinating with Ukrainian authorities in the search for the two missing Indian crew members and remained in touch with their families.
The Port of Odesa, one of Ukraine’s key Black Sea ports, has been a frequent target of missile and drone attacks since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022.
In a post on social media on Sunday, the Indian Embassy in Kyiv had said: “Embassy of India in Ukraine is closely monitoring the situation following the incident involving MV AGN Ragnar, which was struck at the Port of Odesa on July 25. Four Indian nationals were on board the vessel. As per the latest information, two have been confirmed safe, and information is awaited regarding the other two nationals.”
