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After warship, naval drone hits Russian tanker

Kyiv claims responsibility; Moscow claims to seize settlement in northeast Ukraine
AFP, Kyiv
Ukraine carried out a drone strike overnight on a Russian tanker in the Kerch Strait, a day after one of Moscow’s ships was hit in the Black Sea, a Ukrainian security source told AFP yesterday.
It was the latest attack around the Black Sea since Moscow exited a deal last month that had protected Ukrainian grain exports despite the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
“Overnight the (Ukrainian Security Service) SBU blew up the ‘SIG’, a large oil tanker belonging to the Russian Federation that was transporting fuel for Russian troops,” the Ukrainian source said.
The “successful special operation”, which involved a naval drone and explosives, was carried out jointly with the navy in Ukrainian territorial waters, the source said, adding that the ship was “well-loaded with fuel, so the ‘fireworks’ could be seen from afar”.
In a video obtained by AFP purporting to show the attack, a vessel is seen approaching a large ship before the connection cuts off.
The Russian tanker SIG was hit around 11:20pm (2020 GMT) on Friday south of the Kerch Strait, Russia’s Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport said.
The oil and chemical tanker is under US sanctions for supplying jet fuel to Russian forces in Syria who are supporting President Bashar al-Assad.
The SIG suffered a hole at the waterline in the area of the engine room, “presumably as a result of an attack by a marine drone”, the agency said on Telegram. “The ship is afloat.”
An oil boom had been placed around the vessel and preparations were under way to patch up the damage, it said.
Russia’s state RIA Novosti news agency said there were no casualties, citing the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Novorossiysk.
Traffic on a key bridge across the Kerch Strait linking the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula to Russia’s mainland resumed early yesterday after a three-hour halt, according to the Russian highways information centre’s Telegram channel.
Crimea has been disrupted by several strikes throughout the war but it has seen more frequent attacks in recent weeks.
Russian forces yesterday downed a drone over the sea near Sevastopol, city governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said.
Ukraine struck the Olenegorsky Gornyak vessel at the Novorossiysk base in southern Russia, a Ukrainian security source told AFP, “to show that Ukraine can attack any Russian warship in that zone”.
On the front line, Russia said it had captured the settlement of Novoselivske in northeastern Ukraine, where Kyiv said it was confronted with a growing number of attacks.
Footage from the Russian army showed Novoselivske completely destroyed, white smoke billowing over crumbling buildings.