A Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker has sunk in the Mediterranean between Libya and Malta after it was hit by explosions and a fire, Libyan port officials have said.
Russia accused Ukraine of targeting the Arctic Metagaz with “uncrewed sea drones” launched from the Libyan coast.
Ukraine’s SBU state security service has not commented on the allegation and the Libyan port authority said the cause of the fire was unclear.
The Libyans said the tanker was carrying about 62,000 tonnes of LNG before the blasts and that it sank about 130 nautical miles (240km) north of the Libyan port of Sirte.
Russia’s transport ministry said 30 Russians were aboard the Arctic Metagaz. Maltese Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said they were all found “safe and sound in a lifeboat” during a rescue operation by Malta’s armed forces.
Unverified night-time footage has emerged purportedly showing the ship ablaze after the attack, which occurred on Tuesday.
Serhii Sternenko, a popular blogger and adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister, posted pictures on Wednesday morning of what he said was the tanker in the Mediterranean, which had a “serious hole in the engine room compartment and is beyond repair”.
He did not elaborate where the pictures came from and they have not been independently verified.
“This is a terrorist attack,” Russia’s Vladimir Putin told state TV. “This isn’t the first time we’ve encountered something like this.”
Russia’s transport ministry called it “an act of international terrorism and maritime piracy”, singling out the European Union for complicity.
Moscow said the Arctic Metagaz – which had been en route from Russia’s northern port of Murmansk – was carrying cargo cleared in accordance with international rules.
The tanker was apparently heading for Port Said in Egypt and is considered part of Russia’s so-called shadow fleet. It has been widely sanctioned by Western countries.
The ministry provided no evidence to back up its claim that the tanker was attacked by Ukrainian sea drones, though there were earlier unconfirmed reports of attacks from the Libyan coast.
The SBU told BBC Ukraine it was not commenting on “the situation with the tanker in the Mediterranean”, although a Ukrainian government-linked social media account, United24, teased that the drones were “Definitely. Maybe” not part of the Ukrainian fleet.
Marine tracking data indicated that the day before the fire, the tanker had last reported that it was sailing off the south-east coast of Malta.
It had sailed some considerable distance by the time the fire was reported and it is assumed the crew deactivated its automatic identification system.
Russia has deployed a surging number of vessels to transport oil and gas in an attempt to avoid international sanctions, which are aimed at slashing revenues that have been critical for funding Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Its shadow fleet is largely made up of aged tankers, many with obscure ownership or insurance.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022, Kyiv has carried out a number of attacks on such vessels using naval drones.
However, nearly all of such strikes have been in the Black Sea, which Russia and Ukraine both border.–BBC
