Russia-Ukraine war latest news: Tanker struck near Crimea bridge in ‘drone’ attack

The Russian oil tanker attacked in the Black Sea on Saturday was hit by a Ukrainian maritime drone carrying 450 kg of explosives and was struck as it transported fuel for the Russian military, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters on Saturday.

The source said the attack on the SIG vessel was a joint operation by the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Navy, and had been conducted in Ukrainian territorial waters.

Harrowing brand-new accounts of Ukrainians being tortured throughout Russia’s eight-month profession of Kherson are “just the tip of the iceberg”, a worldwide group examining the supposed war criminal activities has actually cautioned.

The UN’s unique rapporteur on abuse, Alice Jill Edwards, informed The Independent that resemblances in the accounts of victims throughout numerous various areas of Ukraine “expose a deeper concern that torture and intimidation are a policy and strategy of the Russian state”.

Niger’s brand-new military junta has actually requested for help from the Russian mercenary group Wagner as the due date nears for it to launch the nation’s ousted president or face possible military intervention by the West African local bloc, according to an expert.

The demand came throughout a go to by among the coup leaders, Gen. Salifou Mody, to surrounding Mali, where he reached somebody from Wagner, Wassim Nasr, a reporter and senior research study fellow at the Soufan Center, informed The Associated Press.

He said 3 Malian sources and a French diplomat verified the conference initially reported by France 24.

“They need (Wagner) because they will become their guarantee to hold onto power,” he said, including that the group is thinking about the demand.

A U.S.-sanctioned Russian tanker near the tactical bridge connecting Russia to Crimea was harmed by a sea drone attack, Russian maritime authorities said early on Saturday.

No one was hurt in the attack on the SIG tanker, however the Crimean Bridge and ferryboat transportation were suspended for numerous hours, said Russia-set up authorities in Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The United States approved the chemical tanker and its owner, St. Petersburg-based Transpetrochart, in 2019 for assisting supply jet fuel to Russian forces in Syria.

“The SIG tanker… received a hole in the engine room near the waterline on the starboard side, preliminarily as a result of a sea drone attack,” Russia’s Federal Marine and River Transport firm said in a declaration on the Telegram messaging app.

Russian media said the tanker, approaching the Kerch Strait that connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, was struck by Ukrainian drones.

Ukraine’s Interfax firm, pointing out an unnamed Ukrainian security service source, said the attack was carried out by Ukraine’s security and marine forces in its territorial waters, utilizing sea drones.

Reuters might not right away validate the reports. There was no instant remark from Ukraine.

The Russian Navy landing ship Olenegorsky Gornyak almost definitely suffered severe damage after being struck while near the Black Sea Fleet’s (BSF) Novorossiysk base, the British Ministry of Defence said today.

“Images of the vessel listing at 30-40 degrees suggest that several watertight compartments were breached, or that the crew’s damage control efforts were ineffectual,” the ministry said in its latest intelligence update.

“This is a significant blow to the BSF, which previously relocated most of its units to Novorossiysk due to the high threat to Sevastopol,” the ministry said.

It included that the vessel, regularly designated to Russia’s Northern Fleet, has “augmented the BSF since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has often ferried military and civilian traffic between Russia and occupied Crimea when the Kerch Bridge has been disrupted due to attacks”.

“The 3600 tonne, 113 metre long Olenegorsky Gornyak represents the largest Russian naval vessel seriously damaged or destroyed since the sinking of the cruiser Moskva on 13 April 2022,” the MoD said.

In a period of a years, Alexei Navalny has actually gone from the Kremlin’s greatest opponent to Russia’s most popular political detainee.

Already serving 2 convictions that have actually landed him in jail for a minimum of 9 years, he stands a brand-new trial that might keep him behind bars for 2 more years.

The decision in the trial is because of be revealed Friday in a makeshift courtroom in the Penal Colony No. 6, where Navalny is being held and where the trial occurred behind closed doors, in the town of Melekhovo, about 230 kilometres (over 140 miles) east of Moscow.

Ukraine has actually implicated Russia of preparing a “false flag” attack on an oil refinery in Belarus in an effort to draw Minsk into the war, as stress increase on Nato’s eastern border.

While Alexander Lukashenko has actually up until now prevented being dragged into the full-blown dispute by his close ally Vladimir Putin, the Belarusian president permitted Moscow’s soldiers to utilize Belarus as a staging ground for their intrusion last February, and has actually consented to host Russian nuclear weapons.

Concerns have actually been brewing in the West because Mr Lukashenko consented to take in Wagner mercenaries banished from Russia after their shortlived mutiny, with Nato member Poland caution today of the hazard postured by the “extremely dangerous” fighters, as it rushed soldiers to their shared border.

Andy Gregory reports here:

The engine room of SIG tanker released by Russia near Crimea was harmed as an outcome of a sea drone attack, Russia’s Federal Agency for Marine and River Transport verified today.

“The SIG tanker… received a hole in the engine room near the waterline on the starboard side, preliminarily as a result of a sea drone attack,” the firm said in a declaration.

No instant casualties have actually been reported.

Britain will back Ukraine “every way we can” till the war is over, Ben Wallace said.

His remarks follow a sincere call from Olena Zelenska, in a special interview with Independent TELEVISION, to other countries, in which she said: “Please don’t get fatigued, because we as Ukrainians have no right to get tired.”