Russia said on Saturday (5 August) it would punish Ukraine for using a sea drone to attack a civilian tanker near the Kerch Strait in what it said was a “terrorist act” that threatened the lives of the crew and risked “a large-scale environmental disaster”.
Both sides said on Saturday (5 August) that a Ukrainian sea drone full of explosives had struck a Russian fuel tanker overnight near a bridge linking Russia to annexed Crimea, the second such attack in 24 hours.
No one was hurt, but the Crimean Bridge and ferry transport were suspended for several hours, according to Russian-installed officials in Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014.
A Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters that the drone with 450 kg of explosives hit the SIG vessel as it transported fuel for the Russian military in Ukrainian territorial waters.
“The tanker was well loaded with fuel, so the ‘fireworks’ were seen from afar,” the source said, of the joint operation by Ukraine’s navy and security service.
Kyiv says destroying Russia’s military infrastructure inside Russia or on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine is crucial to its counteroffensive after the February 2022 invasion.
Another sea drone attack on Russia’s navy base at Novorossiysk damaged a warship on Friday, the first time the Ukrainian navy had projected its power so far from its shores.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow would retaliate.
“The Kyiv regime, meeting no condemnation from Western countries and international organisations, is actively applying new terrorist methods, this time in the waters of the Black Sea,” Zakharova said in a statement.
“There can be no justification for such barbaric actions, they will not go unanswered and their authors and perpetrators will inevitably be punished.”
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev earlier on Saturday suggested Moscow would launch more strikes against Ukrainian ports in response to Kyiv’s attacks on Russian ships in the Black Sea, and threatened to hand Ukraine “an ecological catastrophe”.
Strike on blood transfusion centre
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a Russian guided aerial bomb hit a blood transfusion centre in the town of Kupiansk in eastern Kharkiv region late on Saturday.
“There are dead and wounded,” he said on his Telegram channel. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Kupiansk is a railway hub fewer than 10 miles from the front.
Zelenskyy said rescue workers were extinguishing a fire at the scene and described the strike as a “war crime.” He did not say how many people were killed or wounded.
(Edited by Georgi Gotev)
