- Ukrainian drone ignited oil tanker, 23 Indian crew saved.
- Burning crude oil caused beach closures, environmental monitoring initiated.
- This adds to ongoing Black Sea commercial shipping incidents.
- Other merchant vessels recently hit, some with casualties.
A Ukrainian drone attack set fire to a Liberian-flagged oil tanker carrying 23 Indian crew members off Russia’s Black Sea coast on Tuesday, with all those aboard later rescued, Russian authorities said.
Russia’s Transport Ministry said the Aframax Rio was attacked by “naval drones”, triggering a fire in the Black Sea near the Russian resort city of Sochi. There were no injuries among the crew, the ministry said, according to Reuters.
Emergency crews rescued all 23 people aboard the tanker, while the attack caused crude oil to burn openly in the Black Sea, according to the Russian Transport Ministry.
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Indian Crew Rescued As Tanker Catches Fire
Firefighters were initially unable to tackle the blaze because of its intensity. However, the ministry said emergency crews had sufficient means to fight the fire after the flames became less intense.
The vessel was carrying an entirely Indian crew and was reported to be on fire off Russia’s southern Krasnodar region. A large cloud of black smoke was visible from Sochi following the incident.
Authorities in the Sirius federal territory closed beaches after the attack, while water and air quality were being monitored.
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Black Sea Shipping Faces Growing Risks
The incident came amid a series of attacks involving commercial shipping in the Black Sea since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Both Russia and Ukraine have heavily targeted commercial shipping in the region during the conflict.
Russia has in recent days attacked grain vessels carrying Ukrainian goods near the Romanian coast. Earlier on Tuesday, a Russian strike on a Marshall Islands-flagged merchant vessel in the Black Sea killed at least one crew member and injured several others.
The vessel was carrying rapeseed oil and caught fire after its superstructure was damaged. Two other merchant ships, the Togo-flagged Alfa Watan and Palau-flagged Able, were also hit by drones of unknown origin about 112 kilometres off Bulgaria’s coast. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied that Ukrainian forces were behind those strikes near Bulgaria.
