A Russian drone has hit a NATO flagged ship carrying liquefied natural gas in the port of Odessa on Monday.
A Turkish flagged tanker was hit by a Russian drone in Odessa which comes one day after the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a deal with the US to import the gas.
The MT Orinda was struck by the drone whilst they were offloading the liquefied petroleum gas at Izmail port.
The Turkish Directorate for Maritime Affairs said that all of the 16 crew were evacuated from the MT Orinda safely.
The Odesa region has been constantly hit by missiles and drones at Ukraine’s Black Sea ports since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale war in the country.
The Russian attack caused multiple blazes in the Odesa region overnight and port infrastructure was damaged.
As a result of the Russian overnight attack a village in the Romanian border was evacuated as the Turkish vessel was on fire a hundred meters away following the drone strike, Romanian news outlet Digi24 reported.
Around 150 people were evacuated from Plaura village which is across from the Danube River from the port of Izmail.
“Russia’s brutal escalation of terror threatens not only Ukraine but also our neighbours,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said.
This underscores the urgency of collective pressure on Moscow to end the war.”
