Turkish company denies involvement in Crimean bridge attack

Palmali Shipping & Agency has denied the possible involvement of its Khudayar Yusifzade vessel in the drone attack on the Crimean Bridge.

According to the company, the vessel was in the Dardanelles Strait at the time of the accident, TASS reports.

"Vessels of our company transport vegetable oil both in the Black Sea and other regions. The presence of our vessel in the said region is not surprising. But we have nothing to do with this incident, at the time of the explosion our tanker was in the Dardanelles Strait. Reports about the possible involvement of the tanker Khudayar Yusifzade in the attack on the Crimean bridge are not true," the company said, commenting on the allegations about the possible involvement of the vessel in the attack.

It was also noted that the vessel Khudayar Yusifzade was on a voyage to the port of Rostov-on-Don to load cargo.

"On July 8 at 08:35 at the crossing from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov it anchored in the Kerch Strait waiting for inspection by the Russian border service. Due to the large number of vessels, the wait for inspection was prolonged. While the vessel was at the anchorage on July 13, its charterer cancelled the contract because of the delay in arriving at the port of Rostov-on-Don. The vessel's passage to the Sea of Azov became inexpedient, so it turned around and headed to the port of Elefsis [Greece] to load cargo in accordance with the new transportation contract," the company said.

Palmali Shipping & Agency emphasised that "the vessel Khudayar Yusifzade was in no way and never involved in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, did not carry out any illegal actions, did not carry any prohibited cargo or military equipment."

"We are a transportation company that deals exclusively with transportation. We do not want our company's name to be associated with such unpleasant events," the company said.