Russian tanker SIG attacked by marine drone remains afloat

The SIG tanker, attacked by the Ukrainian side, received a hole in the engine room area.

“The SIG tanker received a hole in the engine room near the waterline on the starboard side, presumably as a result of an attack by a marine drone,” the Federal Agency for Marine and River Transport said on its Telegram channel, TASS reports.

The ship was on the southern approach to the Kerch Strait. There were no casualties, the ship is afloat.

To recap, a Russian tanker was hit by Ukrainian drones in the Kerch Strait a day after Kyiv said it had carried out a seaborne drone strike on a navy ship, according to reports in the Russian media.

The tanker was damaged in the attack and two tugboats were at the scene to assist it, the state-run Tass news agency said, citing the Maritime Rescue Centre. The reported attack briefly halted traffic on the Kerch Bridge, the strategic highway linking Russian-occupied Crimea to the Russian mainland, according to The Guardian.

Explosions were heard near the bridge early on August 5, Russian-appointed officials said, adding that the blasts were linked to the attack on the tanker. No fuel had been spilled from the ship, which had 11 people on board, Tass said.

Ukraine, which rarely comments on attacks on Russian targets, made no official statement on the incident.