Kerch Strait News

Ukrainian sea drones hit and sank a Russian Black Sea Fleet patrol ship off occupied Crimea in an overnight attack, the Ukrainian military said on Tuesday.Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency said a special unit called Group 13 had fired Magura V5 maritime drones at the Sergey Kotov near the Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.It said on the Telegram messaging app that the vessel had sustained damage to the stern, starboard and port sides, at an estimated cost of $65 million."Right now this ship is on the seabed as a result of fire damage by unmanned boats…

Ukrainian sea drones damaged a Russian Black Sea Fleet patrol ship off occupied Crimea, Ukrainian military intelligence said on Tuesday.The intelligence agency said on Telegram messaging app that its special unit Group 13 attacked the Russian Black Sea Fleet patrol ship Sergey Kotov near the Kerch Strait."As a result of a strike by Magura V5 maritime drones, the Russian ship Project 22160 Sergey Kotov sustained damage to the stern, starboard and port sides," it said. The message added that the ship was worth about $65 million.Andriy Yermak…

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday that it had found traces of explosives on a ship travelling from Turkey to the port of Rostov-on-Don in Russia to pick up grain.The FSB said the ship had been docked in the Ukrainian port of Kiliia in May, and that it may have been used to deliver explosives to Ukraine.It said the ship had changed its name while in the Turkish port of Tuzla earlier this month and replaced its crew, which had consisted of 12 Ukrainian nationals."These…

The movement of cargo vessels through the Kerch Strait has been suspended by Russian authorities since July 16 following drone attacks on the Crimean port of Sevastopol, two industry sources told Reuters.Russia's defense ministry said its forces had prevented Ukraine from attacking Sevastopol on Sunday, destroying seven aerial and two maritime drones."Navigation is already idle for the third day. They stopped it on July 16, around 5 p.m.

Several tankers loaded with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) have been unable to cross under Russia's Crimea bridge due to security restrictions, traders said on Friday, prompting suppliers to use other routes out of Russia.The 12-mile (19 km) road and rail bridge, which was personally opened by President Vladimir Putin in 2018, was bombed in October in an attack Russia said was carried out by Ukraine. The bridge spans the Kerch Strait linking the Black Sea with the smaller Azov sea. Kyiv never claimed responsibility for the bombing of the bridge on the morning of Oct. 8, a day after Putin's 70th birthday. Russia's Federal Security Service said the attack was organized by Ukrainian military intelligence.

Late last month, a Russian-flagged cargo ship carrying corn pulled into the Turkish port of Izmir on the Aegean Sea. The SV Nikolay had loaded the grain at Port Kavkaz, in Russia, six days earlier on June 18, according to documentation provided by an employee of the Russian company that owns the ship.A Reuters analysis of satellite imagery, ship-tracking data and open-source photos and videos yields a different port of origin for the SV Nikolay. On June 18, Reuters’ analysis of a satellite image indicates…

Russia's Foreign Ministry accused Ukraine on Friday of a "provocation" over an incident involving a Ukrainian warship near the Kerch Strait, the RIA news agency reported.Ukraine has dismissed the Russian complaints as part of a Russian "information attack" on Kyiv.Russia's Federal Security Service said on Thursday that a Ukrainian vessel had headed towards the Kerch Strait that separates Russia and its annexed peninsula of Crimea, and did not react to a Russian request to change its course.The Ukrainian vessel later headed back, it said.(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; writing by Tom Balmforth;

Ukraine said on Saturday it would speed up the construction of a naval base at the port of Berdyansk to prevent what Kyiv calls a gradual attempt by Moscow to take control of the Sea of Azov that flows past Russian-annexed Crimea.Ukraine's newly-appointed defense minister announced the plans after a trip to Berdyansk that followed Western warnings this week about Russian troop movements near Ukraine's borders and a possible attack.Russia has dismissed as inflammatory suggestions…

Three people were reported missing after an explosion took place on a Russian oil tanker travelling through the Kerch Strait towards the port of Rostov-on-Don on Saturday, the Russian federal maritime agency said.The General Hazi Aslanov was not carrying any oil, and the explosion was likely triggered by leftover fumes, the Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport said.A rescue operation was underway, the emergencies ministry said, adding that the emergency services had sent three vessels to help.There were 13 people on board, of whom six had been rescued and three were missing overboard. Four remained on deck, the ministry said. (Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Matthias Williams and Alison Williams)

Ukraine's security service said on Thursday it had detained a Russian tanker in the Ukrainian port of Izmail for its alleged involvement in an incident in November in the Kerch Strait that led to Russia seizing three Ukrainian vessels.Russia captured the vessels and their crews in waters that separate Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and Russia.The Ukrainian security service said in a statement that the vessel, now called Nika Spirit and formerly named the Neyma, had entered the port of Izmail after which it had been identified and detained.Reporting by Polina Ivanova

Ten crew members have been found dead and 14 have been rescued after two ships caught fire in the Kerch Strait near Crimea, Russia's transport ministry said on Monday, with a rescue operation still underway.The ministry said earlier on Monday that crew members were jumping into the sea to escape the blaze, which probably broke out during a ship-to-ship fuel transhipment.Both ships were under the Tanzanian flag - Candy (Venice) and Maestro - and had a combined total of 31 crew members. Of them, 16 were Turkish citizens and 15 from India, it said.An industry source told Reuters there were stormy conditions in the sea when the incident happened.The Kerch Strait between Russian-annexed Crimea and southern Russia controls access from the Black Sea to the Azov Sea…

Russia-Ukraine naval clash followed shipping holdups Ships bound for Ukrainian ports say they are held up while those bound for Russian ports go through.When the Island Bay cargo ship arrived from Beirut at the Kerch Strait, gateway to the Azov Sea, it sailed into a perfect storm of geopolitics and bad weather.The following day, Russia opened fire on three Ukrainian naval ships, impounded them and detained their sailors, some of them wounded. It then blocked the strait by putting a tanker underneath a new bridge it has built linking the Russian mainland to the Crimean peninsula it annexed from Ukraine in 2014.While the world digested the implications of the Nov.

Russia on Monday ignored Western calls to release three Ukrainian naval ships it fired on and captured near Crimea at the weekend and accused Kiev of plotting with its Western allies to provoke a conflict.Kiev in turn accused Russia of military aggression and put its armed forces on full combat alert, saying it reserved the right to defend itself. Ukrainian lawmakers were due to decide whether to introduce martial law for two months later on Monday, a move President Petro Poroshenko…

The U.S.

In view of the beginning new 'grain' season in Russia and the expected considerable export volume of grain cargoes this year there will be an increase of the vessel traffic in such areas as Port Kavkaz (STS operations of sea/ocean going vessels) and Kerch Strait (comparatively small river-sea going vessels calling ports of Rostov, Azov and Taganrog), cautions the Swedish Club. There have been several recent issues with the vessels loading grain cargoes at Port Kavkaz anchorage and OPL Kavkaz (neutral waters of the Black Sea). According to the Charter Party terms, the Master was to sign Bills of Lading with weight to be as per shipper's figures.

Russia plans to supply Syria with 200,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) per year via the Crimean port of Kerch, two trading sources told Reuters. The plans are a further sign of cooperation between the two countries despite hopes in the West that Russia might stop shielding President Bashar al-Assad from pressure to step aside. Moscow had been shipping significantly lower volumes of LPG to Syria via Kerch before Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014. The United States and the European Union, which say the seizure of Crimea violates international law, have imposed sanctions on individuals and business in Crimea, which include restrictions on use of the Kerch port. Russia is a staunch ally of Syria and an exporter of arms to Damascus.

Crude oil tanker earnings on the major Middle East route fell on Tuesday as a build up of vessels available for hire weighed on rate sentiment. Shipping markets continued to monitor developments in Ukraine after Russia sent military forces into the Crimea region of southern Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would only use military force in Ukraine as a last resort. A U.S. official said it was ready to impose economic sanctions on Russia. The world's benchmark VLCC export route from the Middle East Gulf (MEG) to Japan reached W50.73 in the Worldscale measure of freight rates, or $25,765 a day when translated into average earnings. That compared with W51.33 or $27,219 a day on Monday and W55.05 or $32,176 a day last Tuesday.

Reuters - Russian navy ships have blocked off the Kerch Strait which separates Ukraine's Crimea region and Russia, the Ukrainian border guard service said on Tuesday. The border guards have said that Russian servicemen are in control of the Crimean side of the narrow channel and that Russian armoured vehicles have been sighted on the Russian side. "The Kerch Strait is blocked by two Russian ships - from the north and from the south," Pavel Shishurin, the deputy head of the border guards, told reporters. The Russian military has not confirmed his comments.

Sulfur from two ships that sank in a storm near the Black Sea last week is leaking into waters already polluted by an oil spill from another vessel, UkraIne's Environment Ministry said on Monday. Four ships sank in the Kerch Strait on the northern mouth of the Black Sea in one of the worst storms in a century. They included a Russian-registered tanker which disgorged hundreds of tons of oil, creating a environmental disaster for the area's ecology. Tens of thousands of birds, covered in heavy fuel oil and unable to fly, have been killed mostly on Russia's side of the strait. The pollution has also killed fish and even dolphins, according to environmental agencies. Two other Russian ships were carrying several thousand tons of sulfur. Source: Reuters

A storm that killed at least six sailors has prompted Russia to temporarily ban rive-class vessels from entering the open sea. The ban on Project 576 and Project 2188 river-class vessels will remain in effect until authorities finish investigating the damage from the Nov. 11 storm in the Kerch Strait between the Black and Azov Seas, RIA Novosti reported. The storm sank four ships and split an oil tanker in half, spilling 2,000 metric tons of fuel oil into the sea and causing serious environmental damage, RIA Novosti reported. Source: UPI