Drone strikes Turkish tanker in Ukraine’s Odesa, where US natural gas will go

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A drone struck a Turkish-flagged tanker and set it ablaze on Monday in southern Ukraine’s Odesa region, officials said, a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a deal to import U.S. liquefied natural gas through the area.

The MT Orinda was hit during the offloading of liquefied petroleum gas at Izmail port, Turkey’s Directorate for Maritime Affairs said. All 16 crew on board evacuated and no one was hurt, it said.

Russia has used drones, missiles and artillery to repeatedly batter the Odesa region, especially its Black Sea ports, since its full-scale invasion of its neighbor nearly four years ago. There was no immediate Russia comment Monday.

Ukrainian officials didn’t comment specifically on the tanker, although regional military administration head Oleh Kiper said Russian drones attacked the Odesa region overnight and damaged energy and port infrastructure in several cities.

The attack sparked multiple fires and damaged an unspecified number of civilian vessels, Kiper said, adding that one person was injured.

Izmail lies on a Black Sea estuary and is one of a string of ports that are vital for Ukrainian imports and exports. With Russia also targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Zelenskyy is trying to ensure gas and other energy imports that can help see his country through the approaching winter.

Zelenskyy on Sunday was on an official visit to Greece. The U.S. liquefied natural gas will flow to Odesa via pipelines from the northern Greek port of Alexandroupolis starting in January.

Authorities in Romania, meanwhile, ordered the evacuation of people and animals from two villages close to Izmail on the Romanian side of the border, saying the nature of the tanker’s cargo required such precautions.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian missiles killed three people and injured 11 others in Balakliya in the northeastern Kharkiv region in an overnight attack. Four girls aged 12, 14, 15 and 17 were among those injured, authorities said.

Russian drones and artillery also killed two people and injured two others in a daylight attack on Nikopol in the central Dnipropetrovsk region on Monday. The attack hit high-rise apartment blocks, stores and a hair salon, said the regional head of the military administration, Vladyslav Haivanenko.

The United Nations says Russian strikes have killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians during the war.

Russia fired two Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 128 strike and decoy drones across the country during the night, Ukraine’s air force said.

Russian air defenses shot down 36 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Defense Ministry said, as Ukraine tries to hit back at Russia’s power grid.

A Ukrainian drone attack damaged an electricity substation in Russia’s Ulyanovsk region, Gov. Aleksey Russkikh wrote on social media, adding that no casualties were reported and that local power supplies were working normally.

___

Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England, contributed.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine