After a drone strike on the 1976 Polish built Russian Navy Ropucha II Class Landing Ship OLEGORSKY GORNYAK formerly known as BDK-91 last, Saturday 5th August, Ukraine has followed upon a sanctioned Russian tanker, the SIG. Interfax Ukraine quotes sources in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) as saying that the tanker was being used to transport fuel for Russian troops.
SIG was built in Russia by Kostromskoy Shipbuilding Shiprepairing Plant at Kostroma as a chemical/oil products tanker. She’s owned by Ugra-Leasing LLC and operated by Transpetrochart LLC. Both the ship and Transpetrochart are on the U.S. OFAC sanctions list. Transpetrochart has been sanctioned since 2016 when it was identified as a front for Sovfracht and the SIG was added to the sanctions list in 2019 for her role in supplying jet fuel to Russian forces bombing civilian targets in Syria in support of the Assad regime.
According to reports, because of her role in regularly supplying the Russian military, Ukraine does not consider the sanctioned Russian tanker a civilian vessel but a legitimate military target.
The drone that struck the tanker was reportedly carrying 450 kilograms of TNT and reports indicate it holed the tanker in the water line area.
Meanwhile Ukraine Navy Announced the following Notice –
