ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Two tankers were struck and caught fire in the Black Sea, prompting rescue operations, Turkish authorities reported Friday. Crew members on board both vessels were reported to be safe.
The OpenSanctions database, which tracks people or organizations involved in sanctions evasion, described the vessels as “shadow fleet” — or vessels used to evade sanctions imposed on Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Rescue teams on the scene suspect the tankers were subjected to an “external interference,” Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said.
Haberturk television reported that the tankers may have been attacked by drones that operate on the water’s surface.
Turkey’s Directorate General of Maritime Affairs said the first tanker, the Gambian-flagged Kairos, caught fire in the Black Sea, approximately 28 miles (45 kilometers) off the coast of Turkey’s Kocaeli province. It blamed the fire on “an external impact,” without providing details.
The Kairos was sailing empty toward Russia’s Novorossiysk port, it said.
Within an hour, the maritime authority reported that a second tanker, Virat, was “struck” while sailing in the Black Sea about 35 nautical miles off the Turkish coast. It did not provide further details.
Rescue teams were dispatched to the scene to provide assistance. All 20 crew members aboard the Virat were safe, although heavy smoke was reported in the engine room, the maritime authority said.
All 25 crew aboard the Kairos were safely evacuated, Kocaeli Gov. Ilhami Aktas said, adding that efforts to extinguish the fire were continuing.
“A large fire is taking place,” he said.
He would not comment on what caused the fires — including whether they may have been struck by sea mines — but said the authorities would issue “a clearer statement” once their inquiries are completed.
“There is no confirmed information yet, but our colleagues who first went to carry out the rescue, believe there was an external intervention,” Uraloglu, the transport minister told Haberturk. He said both tankers were empty.
The maritime authority posted distant shots of smoke rising from the area where the Kairos caught fire.
The VesselFinder website showed the Virat was anchored north of the Bosphorus, not far from its current position, on Nov. 4. The Kairos’ last position was on Nov. 26 south of the Dardanelles Strait connecting the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara.
The United States sanctioned the Virat in January this year, followed by the European Union, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Canada, according to the OpenSanctions website. Similarly, the EU sanctioned the Kairos in July this year, followed by the U.K. and Switzerland.
“The shadow tanker fleet continues to provide multibillion-dollar revenues for the Kremlin bypassing sanctions, disguising its activities under the flags of third countries, using complex schemes to conceal owners and poses significant environmental threats,” OpenSanctions says in its website entry on the Kairos.
The Virat, built in 2018, uses “irregular and high-risk shipping practices” and has previously sailed under the flags of Barbados, Comoros, Liberia and Panama, OpenSanctions says.
The Kairos, formerly flagged as Panamanian, Greek and Liberian, was built in 2002.
Ukraine’s military intelligence service, the GUR, says on its website that both ships visit Russian ports and have a history of shutting off their automatic identification systems, which transmit a ship’s position.
They have also docked at ports in China, Turkey and India, among other locations.
By SUZAN FRASER and ANDREW WILKS
Associated Press
