Ukraine attacks Russian oil tanker in Black Sea

RT
Sat, 05 Aug 2023 00:08 UTC

© Sputnik/Vitaly Timkiv/File Photo

Russian tanker off coast Crimea

The ship was off the coast of Crimea when its engine room flooded, Russia's maritime agency has said...

Russian maritime rescue units were deployed early on Saturday to assist an oil tanker off the coast of Crimea. The vessel was left without propulsion after what reports suggest was a strike by a Ukrainian drone.

In a statement on Telegram, Russia's Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport said that the oil carrier had its hull breached near the engine room "presumably, as a result of a sea drone attack." The agency said that the incident occurred south of the Crimean Bridge, which had been targeted by a Ukrainian drone raid last month.

It added that none of Sig's 11 crew had been wounded and that the vessel remains afloat and is no longer taking on water. Two tugboats dispatched to help the ship have already arrived and repair works are underway, officials said.

Against the backdrop of an apparent Ukrainian attack, traffic on the Crimean Bridge was stopped just before midnight, with local authorities saying there was a threat of a drone attack. In this vein, Oleg Kryuchkov, adviser to the head of Crimea, said that "loud noises" heard by local residents had nothing to do with the bridge.

Meanwhile, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev blamed the reported attack on Ukraine, accusing Kiev of trying to orchestrate an environmental disaster in the Black Sea.

Vasiliy Malyuk, the head of Ukraine's Security Service, also hinted at the possible role of Kiev in the incident, describing "all special ops in Ukraine's territorial waters as completely legal."

Ukrainian sea drones attacked the Black Sea Fleet base at Novorossiysk early on Friday. Kiev also tried to sink civilian ships sailing towards the Bosphorus on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said, adding that all attacking craft had been destroyed by military escorts.

There has been no official confirmation following rumors that Ukraine had once-again tried to target the Crimean Bridge with maritime drones.

The bridge, connecting Kerch with Taman, has come under attack twice so far. In October 2022, a truck loaded with explosives detonated on one of the spans, killing three people and causing damage that took months to repair. Last month, a drone boat blew up under one of the segments, killing two civilians and a 14-year-old girl. The July attack damaged only one lane of the roadway and authorities restored a partial flow of traffic within a day.

Earlier this week, the head of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, Aleksey Danilov, said the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was involved in both incidents.

Comment: More details emerge:

Ukraine hit a Russian oil tanker in the Kerch Strait, near the Crimean Bridge, with a naval drone equipped with explosives, the military and Russian state reports said on Saturday, August 5.

The strike on the oil tanker Sig was carried out by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and the navy, Ukrainian state broadcaster Suspilne said, citing sources. The drone was packed with 450 kg of explosives.

Tass said oil tanker was in the Kerch Strait, which runs between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.

United24, which is associated with the president's office, said the Sig was previously supplying aviation fuel for Russian warplanes in Syria.

It is the second such surface drone attack on a Russian vessel around the Black Sea in as many days after Ukraine said on Friday that it had struck the Ropucha-class landing ship Olenegorsky Gornyak at Russia's naval base in Novorossiysk.

Down the drones:

The Russian military has prevented an attempted "terrorist attack" on Crimea's critical infrastructure. Air defense systems engaged and destroyed ten plane-type UAVs, while "three more drones were suppressed by electronic warfare," the military said in a brief statement on Friday morning.

In a separate attack on Friday, Ukrainian forces attempted to strike the Russian Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk in Krasnodar Region using naval drones.