Drone assault on tanker reportedly holed it on the waterline close to the engine room. [Screen grab from YouTube video]
Ukraine has adopted up on its drone strike on a Russian Navy warship with a drone strike, Saturday, on a sanctioned Russian tanker, the Sig. Interfax Ukraine quotes sources within the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) as saying that the tanker was getting used to move gas for Russian troops.
The Sig is a 6,619 dwt 2014-built Russian-built merchandise tanker owned by Ugra-Leasing LLC and operated by Transpetrochart LLC. Both the ship and Transpetrochart are on the U.S. OFAC sanctions list. Transpetrochart has been sanctioned since 2016 when it was recognized as a entrance for Sovfracht and the Sig was added to the sanctions record in 2019 for its position in supplying jet gas to Russian forces bombing civilian targets in Syria in help of the Assad regime.
According to stories, due to its position in repeatedly supplying the Russian army, Ukraine doesn’t take into account the sanctioned Russian tanker a civilian vessel however a official army goal.
The drone that struck the Sig was reportedly carrying 450 kilograms of TNT and stories point out it holed the tanker within the water line space
Citing a number of Telegram channel posts, Ukrinform reports that the tanker was anchored within the space of the Kerch Strait bridge when it was hit and quotes the next transcript from a transmission from the vessel:
“We ourselves cannot move without a tugboat. The engine room is flooded. We do not know what our management will there. We need to be tugged to a shipyard or something. We didn’t drain the water out, it stopped coming in by itself (the water). We just have as much there as it is. The ship is in ballast. All cargo tanks are empty. The ship is afloat. The water rose to the waterline until it stopped.”
Imagery of the flooded engine room is throughout X (previously Twitter).
The assault on the Sig comes amid stories of stepped up makes an attempt to hit Russian provide strains which have included strikes on bridges in occupied Crimea.
On August 4, Ukraine introduced a battle danger space within the waters of Russian ports on the Black Sea.
“War risk area. The water area of the internal and external roads of the ports of Anapa, Novorossiysk, Gelendzhik, Tuapse, Sochi, Taman,” mentioned an announcement on the web site of the hydrographic service of the State Maritime and River Transport Service.
