In the Kerch Strait, as a result of an attack by marine drones, on the night of August 4-5, the Russian chemical tanker “SIG” was damaged.
How informs TASS agency, rescuers from Novorossiysk were sent to help the tanker that came from Turkey. Negotiations of the sailors of the damaged Russian tanker were recorded, where the crew reports that the vessel is afloat, but cannot move independently. IN Telegram channel The Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport reported:
“The Sig tanker (the shipowner of Transpetrochart) received a hole in the engine room near the waterline on the starboard side, presumably as a result of a sea drone attack.” The ship was on the southern approach to the Kerch Strait. There were no casualties, the ship is afloat. Vessels of the Azovo-Chernomorsky branch of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Morspasluzhba” were sent to it: SBS “Mercury” and R/V “Impulse”.
The Russian chemical tanker “SIG” was included in the US sanctions list in 2019 for the delivery of aviation fuel from Crimea to Syria.
The Russian edition of TASS, referring to the Taman Sea Rescue Sub-Center of the Russian Federation, reported that a group of rescuers set off from Novorossiysk to the Kerch Strait area. Later, the publication wrote that the tanker was damaged, the crew is safe:
“Two tugboats arrived at the site of the emergency with a tanker in the Kerch Strait, the issue of towing the ship is being decided.”
The SBU reported that on Saturday night, the Security Service of Ukraine, together with the Naval Forces, carried out a special operation, as a result of which a large oil tanker of the Russian Federation “SIG” was blown up, which was transporting fuel for Russian troops. The special operation was carried out using a surface drone, saturated with 450 kg of TNT.
Judging by the footage of the destruction of a Russian tanker by an underwater drone, writes “Country”, this was not an accidental hit, as some commentators initially assumed (they wrote that the drone’s task was to attack the Crimean bridge, but on the way it accidentally crashed into a civilian ship). The video shows that the drone from afar makes a maneuver and changes course to hit the ship.
In principle, the target of the attack could be any ship in the Kerch Strait area in the context of the implementation of the previously announced threat by the Ukrainian command to attack ships en route to the Black Sea ports of the Russian Federation and Crimea. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine made such a statement after similar threats from the Russian Federation regarding ships that go to Ukrainian ports.
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