Overview
- The Palau-flagged Elbus reported being hit by an unmanned surface vehicle and a drone targeting its engine room while transiting the Black Sea.
- Turkish broadcaster NTV said the ship issued a distress call near Abana in Kastamonu province as Turkish coastguard teams were dispatched.
- Maritime data showed the Elbus, sailing from Singapore toward Novorossiysk, diverted and stopped off Inebolu with no injuries to the 25 crew and no oil spill reported.
- The Elbus is the fifth tanker reported struck in the Black Sea since November in a series of attacks disrupting vessels linked to Russian oil flows.
- One day earlier, U.S. forces seized the Russian-flagged Marinera in the North Atlantic and the M Sophia near the Caribbean in operations targeting sanctioned Venezuelan crude, with U.S. officials citing special forces involvement and U.K. support.