Oil tankers wait at anchorage in the Black Sea off Kilyos near Istanbul, Turkey, December 8, 2022. REUTERS/Mehmet Emin Caliskan
Dec 18 (Reuters) – Three people, including two crew members of a cargo vessel, were killed in overnight Ukrainian drone attacks on the Russian port of Rostov-on-Don and the town of Bataysk in the southern Rostov region, the local governor said on Thursday.
The vessel was Russia-flagged tanker Valeriy Gorchakov, according to British maritime risk management company Vanguard. A fire on board was extinguished, Yuri Slyusar wrote on his Telegram messaging app channel. Rostov-on-Don head Alexander Skryabin said that a leak of oil products had been avoided.
Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of deliberately attacking civilian vessels, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to cut Ukraine off from the sea after Kyiv’s attacks damaged three “shadow fleet” tankers heading to Russia this month to export its oil.
One person was killed and seven people were injured in the town of Bataysk where two private homes caught fire as a result of a drone attack, Slyusar said.
The Valeriy Gorchakov is managed by the Volgo-Balt Service, according to LSEG ship-tracking data.
(Reporting by Ronald Popeski, Ksenia Orlova; additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in London; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman , Raju Gopalakrishnan and Ed Osmond)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025.
This article contains reporting from Reuters, published under license.
Sign up for gCaptain’s newsletter and never miss an update
Essential maritime and offshore news, insights, and updates delivered daily straight to your inbox
Ukraine and its European allies hit out on Friday at a U.S. temporary waiver to allow countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products stranded at sea, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warning it would fund Moscow's war machine.
The US issued a second authorization letting countries buy more Russian oil that’s stuck on tankers due to sanctions, part of the White House’s push to prevent prices from surging. The temporary move, which widens a waiver given to India last week, only applies to oil already in transit and as such won’t provide significant financial support for the Russian government, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in a social media post.
The second set of U.S. waivers on Russian oil and vessel tracking data shows both the Iranian and Russian shadow fleets are profiting off the U.S./Israel war against Iran. Lloyd’s list data tracked over half of the tankers and gas carriers traversing the Strait of Hormuz as Iranian. Container ships are also included.
Subscribe to gCaptain Daily and stay informed with the latest global maritime and offshore news
Essential news coupled with the finest maritime content sourced from across the globe.
Sign Up
Join The Club
