(1/2)A view through a train window shows a section of a divided highway tilted to one side following a suspected attack on the Crimean Bridge, which connects the Russian mainland to the Crimean peninsula across the Kerch Strait , in this still image from video taken on July 17. , 2023….
Aug 5 (Reuters) – Explosions were heard near the bridge linking Russian-occupied Crimea to the Russian mainland early on Saturday, Russian-appointed officials said, saying the explosions were related to a Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian tanker.
Russia’s maritime rescue service in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk said tugboats were sent to help the tanker, which was damaged and unable to operate on its own.
“We can say that the tanker is damaged in the (Kerch) Strait, only on the southern side,” the rescue center was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency Tass.
“Now they will see if they tow it or not. It is anchored at the moment. The engine room suffered some damage, not too bad.”
Overnight, a Russian warship was badly damaged in a Ukrainian naval drone attack on Russia’s naval base in Novorossiysk, the first time the Ukrainian navy has projected its power so far off the country’s shores.
Officials stationed by Russia on the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, said the latest explosions had nothing to do with the bridge, which has come under serious attack twice in Russia’s 17-month invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine, which rarely comments on attacks on Russian targets, did not make any official statement on the incident.
Traffic was halted for a time on the bridge, the third such stop in the last 24 hours, but then resumed.
“Once again, there was no direct attack on the Crimean bridge and there was no explosion in the immediate vicinity,” Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to the Russian-installed Crimean governor, was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
Ukraine’s UNIAN news agency said three explosions had been reported in the area.
Ukrainian news reports and pro-Russian officials in occupied parts of Ukraine said Ukrainian drones had attacked a tanker in the Kerch Strait operating under the Russian flag and identified as SIG.
A Russian-appointed official in Ukraine’s southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, Vladimir Rogov, posted an audio clip in which the ship had requested a tugboat tow.
Rogov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, posted images of what he described as vandalized fixtures and equipment inside the ships.
The ship, he said, had been supplying oil to Russian troops in Syria.
The bridge, completed by Russia in 2018, four years after Moscow annexed the Ukrainian peninsula, has been the target of two major attacks in Russia’s 17-month invasion of Ukraine, with the most recent occurring last month.
Ukraine has claimed responsibility for the attacks only indirectly.
Reporting by Ron Popeski and Nick Starkov; Edited by Grant McCool and William Mallard
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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