Triumphant moment Ukrainian drone hits Russian tanker in second strike in a week

A video released by the official media channel of Ukraine’s government, United24Media, shows the moment a drone hit a large Russian tanker last night. The video shows the sea drone travelling quickly towards the ship in the Black Sea. As it hits the tanker, the video cuts off, signalling the strike was successful. Upon being hit, the tanker was located 27km south of Kerch Bridge, the bridge linking the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014 to Russia ‘s Taman. Russia ‘s maritime transport agency, the Federal Agency for Marine and River Transport, later said the vessel had a hole “in the area of [the] engine room near the waterline from the starboard side, presumably as a result of an attack by a sea drone”, but the ship remained afloat. A Ukrainian drone hit a Russian tanker overnight (Image: UKRAINE MILITARY) The overnight attack on the tanker, which had 11 people aboard, forced two tugboats to intervene as the large ship was left unable to move. Russian media reported no member of the crew had been injured, while the tanker suffered damages. Pictures circulating on Russian Telegram channels show one room devastated by the blow, with the ceiling partially collapsed, and another filled with water. The ship was identified by the Moscow Times as the chemical tanker SIG, currently under US sanctions for supplying jet fuel to Russian forces in Syria supporting the Middle Eastern country’s president Bashar al-Assad. Pictures circulating on Russian Telegram channels show the aftermath of the attack (Image: TELEGRAM) Sea drones are small, unmanned vehicles operating on or below the water’s surface. Kyiv hasn’t officially claimed responsibility for the attack, but a Ukrainian security service source has said the SBU was behind it. They told AFP news agency: “Overnight the [Ukrainian Security Service] SBU blew up the Sig, a large oil tanker of the Russian Federation that was transporting fuel for Russian troops.” The operation was carried out jointly with the Ukrainian Navy, using a naval drone and 450kg of TNT explosive, a source also told the BBC . The drone hit in the area of the engine room (Image: TELEGRAM) This attack marks the second Russian ship left heavily damaged this week, as Ukraine is seemingly ramping up its counter-offensive attacks. On Friday, the Russian Navy landing ship Olenegorsky Gornyak at Novorossiysk naval base suffered a serious breach following another Ukrainian drone strike. In its latest intelligence update, the British Ministry of Defence described the overnight strike that happened between August 3 and 4 as a “significant blow” to the Black Sea Fleet.