Ukrainian Sea Drones Attack Russian Oil Tanker in Black Sea
ISTANBUL—Ukrainian sea drones attacked an oil tanker sanctioned by the U.S. for working for the Russian military, potentially bringing the war into a new phase that threatens Russia’s vital shipping lanes in the Black Sea.
Maritime surface drones struck the Russian oil tanker Sig overnight near the Kerch Bridge that links Russia to the occupied Crimean Peninsula, causing damage to the engine room, according to the Russian state news agency TASS, which cited the Marine Rescue Coordination Center of Novorossiysk. The attack intensifies hostilities in the Black Sea after weeks in which Russia has heightened tensions in the region by imposing a de facto blockade on much of Ukraine’s grain exports, striking Ukrainian ports and threatening to attack civilian ships on their way there.
Ukraine in late July issued its own warning, saying it would treat ships headed to Russian ports as potential military targets. This was an apparent attempt to turn the tables on Russia by imposing an “insurance blockade," a freezing of commercial maritime activity that would happen if insurers refused to cover civilian ships heading to and from Russian ports on the Black Sea.
Ukrainian authorities didn’t comment directly on the attack, in keeping with a policy of official silence on their drone attacks in the region. Vasyl Maliuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine, the country’s main intelligence agency, nodded indirectly to the attack in a post on Telegram, noting that it took place in Ukraine’s territorial waters and calling such strikes “an absolutely logical and effective step in regard to the enemy." “They should take advantage of their only opportunity—to leave the territorial waters of Ukraine and our land.
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