Russians could have deliberately attacked gas tanker in Izmail, — Klymenko

The Russian attack on the Turkish gas tanker could have been intentional, as Turkish vessels provide 40% of transportation through the Ukrainian maritime corridor.

The head of the project at the Black Sea Strategic Studies Institute, Andriy Klymenko, wrote about this on Facebook.

He published Google maps showing a vessel similar to the Orinda gas tanker that came under Russian fire on November 17. In the Danube ports, unlike the ports of Great Odesa, it is not practiced to turn off the AIS signal transmission on vessels.

So, when planning the attack on Izmail, Russia could not help but know that a Turkish gas tanker was there – a vessel with an increased level of danger (the hulls of gas tankers are not painted red by chance, Klymenko reminded).

The expert noted that in 10 months of this year, 2,103 merchant vessels arrived at the ports of Great Odesa. On average, this is 210 trips per month (some ships manage to make several trips per month).

In October, despite regular shelling, the figure was a record since the beginning of the year — 266 ships. 40% of all ships belong to Turkish companies — this is the largest share. The next place is Greek shipowners (up to 20%). The rest are distributed among two dozen other countries.

“So our hypothesis is that Moscow decided to “say hello” to Turkey in its own style — that it does not need to go to Ukrainian ports, because it supports the budget of Ukraine, namely that part of it that goes to finance the war with Russia,” Andriy Klymenko commented.

The monthly analysis of missile and other strikes on Ukrainian ports, carried out by the Institute’s Monitoring Group, indicates that another trend has emerged — an increase in attacks on Danube ports against the backdrop of regular attacks on ports in Great Odesa, so that in case of an emergency the Danube ports could not insure sea ports.

Russia may also have a serious goal of “knocking out” the Turkish merchant fleet from transportation to/from Ukraine. The shelling will intensify, the expert concluded.

We will remind, on the night of November 17, Russian troops attacked the port infrastructure of the Odesa region with drones.

In particular, the USPA confirmed that after the night Russian attack, gas pumping equipment located on board a civilian vessel under the Turkish flag caught fire. In this regard, Romania evacuated residents of a border village.

On November 18, the USPA reported that the fire on a ship in Izmail, which caught fire due to the Russian attack, had been extinguished. The operational headquarters continues its work. Specialists are assessing the condition of the facility and determining further response steps. At the same time, measures are underway in the port to eliminate the consequences of the shelling and fully restore the infrastructure.