🔴 Live: Russian chemical tanker hit by Ukrainian drones near Crimea

Issued on: 05/08/2023 – 07:26Modified: 05/08/2023 – 08:35

3 min

6:54am: Russian tanker hit by Ukrainian drones

A Russian tanker was damaged in an attack by Ukrainian drones in the Kerch Strait, briefly halting traffic on the strategic bridge linking Crimea to Russia’s mainland, a government agency and Russian media reported early Saturday.

The tanker SIG suffered a hole at the waterline in the area of the engine room, “presumably as a result of an attack by a marine drone,” the Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport said on Telegram. “The ship is afloat.”

An oil boom had been placed around the vessel and preparations were under way to patch the damage, it said.

The Marine Traffic vessel-tracking website showed the SIG stationary and attended by tugs just south of the strait.

The chemical tanker is under US sanctions for supplying jet fuel to Russian forces in Syria supporting President Bashar al-Assad.

The state RIA Novosti news agency said there were no casualties in the attack, citing the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre of Novorossiysk.

Traffic on the bridge across the Kerch Strait linking the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula to Russia was halted for around three hours and resumed early Saturday, according to the highways information centre’s Telegram channel.

6:07am: Ukraine expects difficult but successful talks in Saudi Arabia

Talks starting Saudi Arabia this weekend to find a peaceful settlement to end Russia’s war in Ukraine will be difficult, but Kyiv is counting on persuading more countries to back its peace formula, the head of Kyiv’s delegation said on Friday.

Ukraine and its allies hope the meeting in Jeddah of national security advisers and other senior officials from some 40 countries – but not Russia – will agree on key principles on how to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“I expect that the conversation will be difficult, but behind us is truth, behind us – goodness,” Andriy Yermak, head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office and his key envoy for the talks, said late on Friday in a television interview published on his Telegram messaging app.

The forum excludes Russia, but the Kremlin said it will “keep an eye” on the meeting. China, which has firm ties with Russia, said on Friday it will send Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui for the talks.

“We have many disagreements and we have heard different positions, but it is important that our principles are shared,” he said.

Key developments from Friday, August 4:

Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday that it had thwarted an overnight drone attack by Ukraine on Novorossiysk, a Russian naval base on the Black Sea. A Ukrainian intelligence official told Reuters that a Russian vessel was damaged in the attack, although the regional governor had earlier stated that there had been no damage or casualties. 

NATO member Lithuania announced on Friday that it would be closing two of its six border crossings with Belarus amid concerns over the presence of Wagner mercenaries there.

Read yesterday’s liveblog to see how the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)