Russian oil tanker breached by drone boat attack

"There are no changes; the crew remains in place. Two tugboats are nearby, laying the boom. There is a hole in the waterline, in the engine room. The water flow has stopped," the Novorossiysk Maritime Rescue Coordination Center stressed. According to the Novorossiysk Maritime Rescue Coordination Center, there is no fuel spill in the sea area.

The rescue work on the tanker was completed at night, repair and restoration work is underway. The ship itself was carrying only technical ballast during the attack. The damaged tanker is located south of the Kerch Strait, at the entrance to the strait, water is being pumped out of it, the ship remains afloat, the Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport added.

On August 1, the Russian Defense Ministry accused the Kiev government of trying to use unmanned boats to attack Russian civilian ships in the Black Sea and was destroyed by Russian escort warships.

"The Kiev authorities carried out a terrorist attack using three semi-submersible unmanned boats against Russian civilian ships en route to the Bosphorus Strait in the southwestern part of the Black Sea. The Russian Navy ships, which were on escort duty at the time, promptly detected and destroyed all of these boats," the Defense Ministry said.

In another development, the Financial Times reported that Kiev is trying to win over countries with long-standing ties to Russia, including India, Indonesia, Kenya, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Mexico, South Africa and Brazil. In July, representatives of President Zelensky and the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry met with experts from developing countries in Poland to find ways to improve the Kiev government's interactions with Africa, Asia and Latin America./.