Russian chemical tanker Sig attacked in Kerch Strait
Chemical tanker Sig was attacked by Ukraine’s Armed Forces in the Kerch Strait, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported. A rescue crew from the city of Novorossiysk was sent out to the area. A “powerful explosion”, which led to a fire, was previously reported near the Crimean Bridge, the representative of the occupation “government” of the Zaporizhzhia region Vladimir Rogov said.
Update 11:42 AM. Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Maliuk has commented on the attack: “Any ‘bang’ happening on Russian ships or the Crimean Bridge is a wholly logical and effective move against the enemy. Furthermore, these special operations are being carried out in Ukraine’s territorial waters and are completely legal.”
According to BBC News Ukraine, the Ukrainian Security Service and Navy conducted the attack on the tanker during a joint operation. As per the media outlet’s sources, a surface drone carrying 450 kg of TNT was used in the attack.
Update 12:40 PM. A surface drone has been detected in the Black Sea, near the city of Sevastopol, Russia-installed “governor” of the city Mikhail Razvozhayev said. According to him, the drone is still on the move, the steps to destroy it are currently being implemented.
“The tanker was damaged during an attack carried out by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kerch Strait,” TASS reported in the early hours of 5 August, citing the Taman Maritime Rescue Sub-centre. According to the news agency, the tanker’s crew is safe. Two tugboats arrived at the scene, as per the centre.
The tanker was holed in the engine room zone “allegedly following a sea drone attack”, Russia’s Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transportation said in a statement. The ship remains afloat. No fuel had spilled from the tanker, as per TASS.
Photo: Telegram / Vladimir Rogov
Russian “war correspondent” Yury Kotyonok previously wrote on his Telegram channel that “a Ukrainian sea drone hit Russian commercial chemical tanker Sig, which was at anchor, some 30 nautical miles from the Kerch Strait”.
Telegram channel BRIEF reported, citing a source, that the commercial tanker was damaged in an explosion, which is what had been the cause of the detonation seen from the peninsula. According to the channel, “the crew is alive, several people have small cuts from the shattered windows”.
Telegram channel Ostorozhno Novosti posted an audio file with an alleged conversation of the tanker’s crew members. In it, a male voice says that “the engine [room] has been flooded, we can’t move without a tugboat”.
“All the cargo tanks are empty. The ship is afloat. The water reached the waterline level and stopped. The boat Mercury is currently operating at the scene, it arrived to help the tanker,” the message said.
Russian pro-war Telegram channel Rybar reported that it was “the Sig tanker to accompany patrol ships Vasily Bykov and Sergey Kotov several days ago at the moment of the drone strike to the north-east of the Bosphorus Strait”. Russia’s Defence Ministry previously said that Ukrainian drones had tried to attack these ships in the early hours of 1 August. There was also an attempt to attack the Sergey Kotov corvette by two Ukrainian sea drones on 25 July; all the attacks had been repelled, the ministry claimed.
In 2019, the US included Sig in the sanctions list for deliveries of aviation fuel to Syria, which were carried out by its owner Transpetrochart Co. Ltd on commission from Russian state company Sovfracht. All of them are under sanctions.
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