Turkish Tanker Struck by Unmanned Vessel in Black Sea

A Turkish-operated oil tanker carrying Russian crude was struck by an unmanned vessel in the Black Sea on Thursday, causing an explosion and damage that forced the crew to seek emergency assistance near Istanbul's Bosphorus Strait.

The Sierra Leone-flagged Altura, owned by a Turkish shipping firm, was hit approximately 15 nautical miles from the strait while en route from Russia's Novorossiysk port. The vessel had loaded about 140,000 tons of crude oil, equivalent to roughly one million barrels, and was bound for destinations including ports in China and India, according to maritime tracking data. The tanker is subject to sanctions by the European Union and Britain, and Ukrainian military intelligence has previously identified it as part of a "shadow fleet" used to circumvent restrictions on Russian energy exports.

Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu described the incident as an externally caused explosion deliberately targeted at the engine room to disable the ship. "We believe it was not a drone attack, but an unmanned surface vehicle at water level," he said in a live interview, adding that technical teams were dispatched to the scene. Initial reports from local...