After attack with drone boat
Russians try to secure damaged chemical tanker
08/05/2023 11:41 am
Again, Ukrainians attack and damage a Russian ship. Apparently water is getting into the tanker, which is currently being pumped out. Kiev has already announced that there will be further attacks on Russian ships. The secret service SBU speaks of an “absolutely logical and effective step”.
After the Ukrainian sea drone attack against the Russian tanker “SIG”, emergency services want to secure the heavily damaged ship in the Kerch Strait. The water that penetrated through a hole is currently being pumped out, the Russian sea rescue agency Morspassluschba said in the morning.
Despite the damage to the engine room, the tanker continues to float freely on the water between the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and Russia. No one was injured in the drone attack. Sea rescue boats are on site to rescue the tanker. So fuel didn’t leak out.
The Marine Traffic website showed the stationary “SIG” just south of the Kerch Strait, with two tugs alongside her. The chemical tanker “SIG” has been sanctioned by the US for supplying fuel to Russian forces in Syria. Traffic on the strategically important bridge across the strait connecting Moscow-annexed Crimea to Russia was halted for about three hours, the Highway Information Center announced on its Telegram channel.
An explosion on the ship could be seen from the peninsula and local residents believed it to be an explosion near the Yakovenkovo settlement near the bridge, Vladimir Rogov, a representative of the Russian occupation authorities in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, wrote on Telegram. Several crew members were injured by broken glass.
Ukraine wants to continue attacks on ships
The tanker in the Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov, was hit and damaged by a drone boat loaded with explosives during the night. The state-owned Ukrainian foreign television broadcaster Freedom released a video purporting to show the drone hitting the ship. According to a report by the broadcaster, attacks with Ukrainian sea drones against Russian ships are to be continued.
The day before, the port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Novorossiyk was the target of a drone attack. Pictures showed the landing ship “Olenegorski gornjak” (Olenegorsk miner) in an inclined position in Novorossiysk. The Ukrainian sea drone is said to have crashed into the ship with 450 kilograms of explosives. The military intelligence service in Kiev then announced further such attacks. The damage to the Crimean bridge between Russia and Moscow-annexed Crimea is said to have been caused by such a drone attack in the most recent explosion in July.
Ukrainian intelligence chief Vasyl Malyuk described the recent drone strikes against Russian ships and the bridge to the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow as “legitimate”. It was an “absolutely logical and effective step” against the enemy, Malyuk said on the Telegram channel of the SBU secret service in Kiev. “Such special operations are carried out in territorial waters of Ukraine and are perfectly legal,” said the SBU chief.
The Ministry of Defense in Kiev had previously announced that it would consider all ships calling at Russian and Ukrainian Black Sea ports as military targets. Ukraine, which has almost no navy of its own, has repeatedly attacked Russian ships. Around last year, she sank the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the cruiser Moskva, with Neptun-type anti-ship missiles. The country is now increasingly using unmanned explosive boats against Russian targets. Ukraine has been defending itself against Russian war of aggression for more than 17 months.