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A drone attacked and set fire to a Turkish-flagged tanker in southern Ukraine’s Odesa region on Monday, a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a deal to import U.S. liquefied natural gas through the region, officials said.
According to the Turkish Maritime Directorate, the MT Olinda crashed while unloading liquefied petroleum gas at Izmail port.
All 16 crew members were evacuated and there were no injuries.
Russia has used drones, missiles and artillery to repeatedly attack the Odesa region, particularly its Black Sea ports, since it began a full-scale invasion of its neighbor nearly four years ago.
There was no immediate comment from Russia regarding the attack.
Authorities ordered the evacuation of people and animals from two villages near Izmail on the Romanian side of the border, saying the nature of the tanker’s cargo required such precautions.
Ukrainian officials did not comment specifically about the tanker, but Ole Kiper, head of the regional military administration, said Russian drones attacked the Odessa region overnight, damaging energy and port infrastructure in several cities.
Kuiper said the attack caused multiple fires and damaged an unspecified number of civilian vessels, adding that one person was injured.
Izmail is located at the mouth of the Black Sea and is one of a series of ports important for Ukraine’s imports and exports.
With Russia also targeting Ukraine’s energy grid, President Zelenskiy is seeking to secure gas and other energy imports to survive the approaching winter.
On Sunday, President Zelenskiy was on an official visit to Greece, where an agreement was signed to flow U.S. liquefied natural gas from the port north of Alexandroupolis to Odessa via pipeline starting in January.
The United Nations says more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed by Russian airstrikes during the war.
Additional sources of information • AP