Altura, a Turkish tanker ferrying Russian oil, was reportedly struck by drones around midnight on Thursday morning off Turkey’s Black Sea coast.
The tanker was struck by an aerial and naval drone just 14 miles (22.5 kilometers) off the Bosporus Strait near Istanbul, which connects the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, according to Türkiye Today.
The outlet said the vessel was ferrying 140,000 tons of Russian crude oil after departing the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, with Bloomberg noting that it amounts to about a million barrels of Urals crude oil.
Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu confirmed the incident on local television and said the vessel’s engine room was struck.
Uraloglu said the vessel is foreign-flagged but operated by a Turkish crew, and all 27 crew members were safe after the attack. Marine database MarineTraffic said the vessel is sailing under the flag of Sierra Leone.
According to the Open Sanctions portal, the Altura has been under EU sanctions since November 2025, followed by Swiss and Ukrainian sanctions in December 2025, and UK sanctions in February 2026. It is not currently subject to US sanctions.
The portal said the vessel’s ownership was transferred to the Turkish company Pergamon Denizcilik Isletmeleri AS, which was registered on June 25, 2025.
Kyiv has not commented on the attack as of the time of publication.
Ukraine’s escalating campaign against Russian oil
Ukraine has continuously targeted Russia’s oil infrastructure in a bid to starve Moscow of its funding for its Ukraine invasion, which has expanded into targeting vessels ferrying Russian oil since late 2025.
On Nov. 28, two tankers sailing under the Gambian flag – Kairos and Virat – were attacked near the Bosphorus. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) later said both ships were disabled by its Sea Baby maritime drones.
On Dec. 1, the tanker Mersin sustained damage off the coast of Senegal, after which its Turkish owner announced it would halt operations involving Russia. A day later, on Dec. 2, the tanker Midvolga-2 was struck near the Turkish coast.
On Dec. 10, Ukrainian forces also hit the tanker Dashan, described as part of Russia’s “shadow fleet,” in the Black Sea.
In December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that the Black Sea should not turn into an “area of confrontation” between Kyiv and Moscow after the strikes.
A report by the Finnish think tank Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) found that Russian crude oil exports remained 6 percent above pre-invasion levels in the war’s fourth year despite Western sanctions, with 93 percent of shipments going to China, India and Turkey.