Drone strike: Russia on Saturday vowed to retaliate against the Ukrainian drone hitting a Russian tanker in the Black Sea near Crimea on late Friday, which was the second sea attack involving drones in a day.
Ukraine hit a major Russian port earlier on Friday.
Moscow condemned the Ukrainian “terrorist attack” on a civilian vessel in the Kerch Strait, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
"There can be no justification for such barbaric actions, they will not go unanswered and their authors and perpetrators will inevitably be punished," she wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
The Black Sea is becoming an increasingly important battleground in the war as Ukraine’s naval capabilities grow.
Moscow had withdrawn from a key export agreement, three weeks ago, that allowed Ukraine to ship millions of tons of grain across the Black Sea for sale on world markets.
Russia carried out repeated strikes on Ukrainian ports in the wake of withdrawal.
An official said that the service was behind the attack on the tanker, which was transporting fuel for Russian forces.
The official added that a sea drone which was filled with 450 kilograms of TNT was used for the attack.
"The Sig tanker...suffered a hole in the engine room near the waterline on the starboard side, presumably as a result of a sea drone attack," Russia's Federal Agency for Marine and River Transport wrote on Telegram.
No casualties in strike
There were no casualties reported among the 11 crew members.
Vladimir Rogov, a Kremlin-installed official in Ukraine's partially-occupied southern Zaporizhzhia region, said several members of the ship's crew sustained injuries due to the broken glass.
Vasyl Malyuk, who leads Ukraine's Security Service, without specifying that Ukraine was responsible for the drone strike, said that "such special operations are conducted in the territorial waters of Ukraine and are completely legal".
“Any such explosions are an absolutely logical and effective step with regard to the enemy,” he said.
The attack briefly halted traffic on the Kerch Bridge, as well as ferry transport.
Shipping expert Jayendu Krishna said that the attacks left Russian shipping activity "largely unaffected".
"Every time anything happens to Russia, you see Putin in retaliation mode … therefore, you may see further attacks on other parts of Ukraine," Krishna said.
"I think it will probably compound the effect and compound the risk in the Black Sea, rather than reducing it," he added.
A Telegram post on Saturday by Deputy Chair of Russia's Security Council Dmitry Medvedev implied that Russia would increase its attacks against Ukrainian ports in response to Kyiv's attacks on Russian ships in the Black Sea: "Apparently, the strikes on Odesa, Izmail, and other places were not enough for them," he wrote.
(With AP inputs)
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