THIS is the moment a Russian ferry loaded with fuel tankers exploded in a huge fireball after a reported Ukrainian missile strike.
Smoke and flames could be seen rising from the ferry at the port of Kavkaz, near annexed Crimea, in a raging inferno.
Smoke and flames rise from a ferry following a fire at the port of Kavkaz, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, as seen from Chushka, Krasnodar region, Russia
The giant blaze could be seen from miles awayReuters
Russian officials on Thursday blamed Ukraine for sinking the ferry in the southern Russian port.
The ferry carrying 30 fuel tanks, as confirmed by Fyodor Babenkov, district head of the town of Temryuk which includes the port, sustained significant damage as a result of the attack, which caused a fire.
Any potential casualties are being assessed.
According to unofficial Telegram news channel Baza, 15 people were on board the ship and were missing after the attack. Ukraine has not immediately commented on the incident.
Russian state news agency TASS, citing the ministry of transport, reported that all port employees were evacuated.
A local task force said a special train to tackle the fire had been sent to the site, reportedly including more than 100 people.
Several Russian media outlets have shared images and videos that appear to depict the blaze and plumes of black smoke rising from the ship.
The fire didn’t spread to the premises of the port, TASS reported.
The port of Kavkaz is one of Russia’s largest outlets on the Black Sea as it handles ships both for exports and for fuel supplies to Crimea.
“A railroad ferry carrying fuel was hit in the port of Kavkaz,” the Russian governor of the Krasnodar region, where the port is located, said in a post on Telegram.
“As a result of the hit and the fire, the vessel sank,” Governor Veniamin Kondratyev added.
Images on social media had earlier shown a fire and plume of smoke after Russian officials reported a Ukrainian attack on the port.
The Kavkaz port sits in the Kerch Strait that separates Russia from Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula it annexed in 2014.
Kyiv has heavily targeted Crimea – a key logistics and military hub for Moscow – since Russia launched its full-scale military offensive in February 2022.
Officials in Kyiv posted cryptic comments after the attack.
“Beautiful,” Daria Zarivna, a communications advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in a post on Telegram, attaching a photo of a large fire at the port.
Speaking at an event for army veterans earlier on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to call for his troops to step up attacks on Russian territory.
“In order to throw the occupier out of our land, we have to create as many problems as possible for the Russian state on its territory,” he said.
Russian officials did not say what weapon Ukraine used to strike the ship.
Governor Kondratyev said search and rescue operations were ongoing for an unspecified number of crew members.
Four who went overboard have been rescued, he added.
Ukraine has hit multiple Russian vessels around the Black Sea throughout the 2.5-year conflict.
A spate of attacks earlier in the fighting prompted Russia to relocate its Black Sea Fleet from its historic base at Sevastopol, on the southern coast of Crimea, further east to Novorossiisk, on the Russian mainland.
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