Another oil tanker was hit by a drone in the Black Sea. The vessel was seriously damaged and taken to a Turkish port

An oil tanker sailing under the flag of the Palau islands and which could be used to export Russian oil was hit by a drone on Wednesday in the Black Sea, near the coast of Turkey, according to the Turkish news station NTV, quoted by the EFE agency.

The tanker, named “Elbus”, was at the time of the attack about 30 nautical miles (about 55 kilometers) off the Turkish coast, near Kastamonu province. There were no injuries among the crew members, but the ship suffered damage in the upper part and was towed to the port of Inebolu with the assistance of the Turkish Coast Guard.

At the end of November, two oil tankers from the “shadow fleet” with the help of which Russia evades the sanctions imposed by the Western countries were hit by Ukrainian maritime drones in the Black Sea, also near the coast of Turkey, but outside its territorial waters. Both ships were moving without cargo to the Russian port of Novorossiisk, reports Agerpres.

Ukraine recognized those attacks, and Turkey protested vehemently and asked Kiev and Moscow, but especially Kiev, to refrain from such actions that threaten the safety of navigation and trade in the Black Sea area.

The tanker attacked on Wednesday is registered in the name of a Hong Kong company and flies the flag of the Palau Islands, one of the “flags of complacency” included in several international blacklists.

According to maritime traffic monitoring data, the oil tanker “Elbus” left Singapore and passed through the Bosphorus a few days ago, and after entering the Black Sea it headed northeast, apparently in the direction of Russia. The same oil tanker docked last July in the port of Novorossiisk, from where about a fifth of the oil exported by Russia is transported.