Ukrainian Drone Strike Kills Two Crew on Russian Tanker at Rostov Port

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.

Updated: May 30, 2026 (Originally published December 18, 2025)

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