A Russian oil tanker in the Kerch Strait off occupied Crimea has become the latest high-profile target to be struck by a Ukrainian naval drone, as Kyiv’s maritime agency warned that all Russian ports should now be considered a “war risk area”.
The early Saturday morning attack on a vessel identified as the Sig was the second such naval attack in a 24-hour period, after the scuppering of a Russian landing ship on Friday outside the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.
A video released by Ukrainian authorities appeared to show an unmanned sea drone striking the side of the 141-metre Russian-flagged Sig under the darkness of night.
The vessel had to be rescued by two tugboats after it lost power, Russia’s state-run Tass news agency reported, but it was claimed there had been no serious injuries and that no fuel had been released into the sea.
On the Baza Russian Telegram channel, internal photographs revealed significant damage to a number of the ship’s compartments. The explosion had been visible from Russian-occupied Crimea.
Vladimir Rogov, the Russian-nominated head of the administration in the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region in south Ukraine, shared what appeared to be a recording of a distress call from the Sig, in which a crew member is heard saying that “the engine room is completely flooded” and that the ship was unable to move.
The nine-year-old vessel, which has 11 crew members, is known to have provided oil to Russian forces, including those operating in Syria. It has been under western sanctions restricting its operations for four years.
Rogov claimed on his Telegram channel: “Such an attack is intended not only to force Russia to return to the shameful grain deal, but also to partially jeopardise the logistical capabilities of Russia’s armed forces in the Middle East.”
The head of Ukraine’s security service, Vasyl Malyuk, without acknowledging Ukraine’s military involvement in the strike, said attacks “on the ships of the Russian Federation or the Crimean Bridge is an absolutely logical and effective step in relation to the enemy”.
He added: “Such special operations are conducted in the territorial waters of Ukraine and are completely legal.”
Later on Saturday, Ukraine’s state service of maritime and river transport announced that from this month “until further notice”, six Russian Black Sea ports – Anapa, Novorossiysk, Gelendzhik, Tuapse, Sochi, and Taman and their approaches – were in a “war risk area”.
The recent developments on sea highlight the growing willingness and capacity to strike far from unoccupied Ukrainian territory, with Friday’s hit on the Olenegorsky Gornyak landing ship showing the extent of its reach.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement on Saturday that the 112-metre landing ship had “almost certainly suffered serious damage” and was “the largest Russian naval vessel seriously damaged or destroyed” since Ukraine sank the cruiser Moskva in April last year.
The attacks will be seen as both an attempt to take the war to Russia, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy has threatened in recent days, and to wear down the Kremlin’s logistical capacity.
They follow Russia’s decision to pull out of a Black Sea grain deal brokered by Turkey and the UN, which was supposed to ensure exports of foodstuffs from the ports.
Since then, Russia has targeted ports and grain silos in the Odesa region while offering free grain to a handpicked number of African countries that would be most heavily affected by the lack of Ukrainian exports.
In comments made after Saturday’s naval strike, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who has a reputation for outlandish threats, suggested Moscow would launch more strikes against Ukrainian ports and threatened to hand Ukraine “an ecological catastrophe”.
Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, which met under the chairmanship of Vladimir Putin on Friday, wrote on Telegram: “Scumbags and freaks understand only cruelty and force. Apparently, the strikes on Odesa, Izmail, and other places were not enough for them.
“If the Kyiv scum want to create an ecological disaster in the Black Sea, they should get one on the part of their territory that will soon fall to Poland and that will stink for centuries after that. That will be the final judgment for them on the grain deal.”
It was unclear to which territory Medvedev was referring.
