{"id":919257,"date":"2026-10-07T09:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T09:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919257\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T09:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T09:52:09","slug":"naval-drone-hits-oil-tanker-off-russian-resort-city-sochi-triggering-massive-blaze-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919257\/","title":{"rendered":"Naval drone hits oil tanker off Russian resort city Sochi, triggering massive blaze | Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

An oil tanker off Russia\u2019s Black Sea coast was struck by a naval drone, triggering a huge fire and black smoke cloud that blanketed parts of the resort city of Sochi, Russia\u2019s transport ministry has said.<\/p>\n

The transport ministry said a Liberian-flagged tanker had been attacked and that \u201ccrude oil is burning openly in the waters of the Black Sea\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirefighting efforts will begin once the fire\u2019s intensity has subsided and rescue vessels can safely approach the tanker,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n

A crew of 23 \u2013 all Indian citizens \u2013 had been rescued, it added.<\/p>\n

Russia and Ukraine<\/a> have targeted commercial shipping around the Black Sea since the conflict began, and Russia has recently attacked grain vessels carrying Ukrainian goods near the coast of Romania.<\/p>\n

There was no comment from Kyiv on the attack.<\/p>\n

Videos and photos circulated on social media from Sochi \u2013 a popular Black Sea resort city of almost 500,000 people \u2013 showed bright orange flames out at sea and a thick column of black smoke billowing into the sky.<\/p>\n

Local officials restricted access to the coast and beaches.<\/p>\n

\"RussiaRussia says a tanker has caught fire in the Black Sea<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Bulgaria\u2019s prime minister said that two commercial vessels had been struck by drones in the first attack on shipping in the Nato member\u2019s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea.<\/p>\n

Bulgarian authorities said that the origin of the drones was under investigation, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed Russia for the drone strikes. Bulgarian prime minister Rumen Radev condemned the attack.<\/p>\n

After an emergency government meeting, Radev said: \u201cThis is an unacceptable attack in Bulgaria\u2019s exclusive economic zone. It is a blatant violation of international law and maritime law.\u201d Radev said after an emergency government meeting.<\/p>\n

Sea and aerial drones attacked the ships about 80 miles (128km) off Bulgaria\u2019s coast, he said.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy warned in his nightly address<\/a> on Tuesday that a \u201cmassive strike\u201d from Russia was likely to come, and in the early hours of Wednesday Kyiv was attacked.<\/p>\n

Russian strikes damaged buildings and warehouses across the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv\u2019s mayor \u200bVitali \u200cKlitschko said \u200con Telegram.<\/p>\n

Agence France-Presse reported multiple explosions in Kyiv, and Reuters reported two people were killed by Russian strikes.<\/p>\n

A separate Russian strike on Ukraine\u2019s south-eastern city of Dnipro damaged \u2060an industrial facility, \u200bofficials said, without giving details.<\/p>\n

Kyiv has been under increased attack as winter approaches, with Russian airstrikes targeting energy infrastructure, rail and road transport, including bridges that connect the city over the Dnipro river. Air raid sirens have sounded almost constantly day and night, urging residents to take cover in basements, shelters and subway stations.<\/p>\n

With Reuters and Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An oil tanker off Russia\u2019s Black Sea coast was struck by a naval drone, triggering a huge fire…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-919257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}