ISTANBUL

Moscow on Sunday accused Ukraine of launching attacks earlier this week against two oil tankers in the Black Sea heading towards the Russian port city of Novorossiysk.

“We strongly condemn the terrorist attacks and the actions of all parties involved in their planning and implementation,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a ministry statement, which also reacted to an attack on an oil terminal of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) a day prior.

On Saturday, the CPC said in a statement that unmanned boats damaged one of the terminal’s single-point moorings in a morning attack, adding that “loading and other operations” were stopped in accordance with an order issued by local Russian authorities.

Earlier on Friday, rescue units rescued all staff of a tanker ship, KAIROS, which caught fire due to an external factor, the Turkish Directorate General for Maritime Affairs announced on US social media company X.

The directorate said the empty KAIROS tanker, en route to Novorossiysk, caught fire 28 miles (45 kilometers) off Türkiye's coast, later declaring that another tanker, named VIRAT, reported that it was hit approximately 35 nautical miles offshore in the Black Sea.

Later that evening, Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said on Turkish social media platform NSosyal that operations are being carried out in full coordination with relevant institutions in the country following the blasts on the two empty oil tankers.

Earlier on Sunday, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry issued a protest over what it described as “another deliberate attack” on the terminal in Novorossiysk, saying it expects Ukraine to take “effective measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.”

Zakharova argued that Ukraine’s security services “effectively claimed involvement” in both incidents by “publishing video evidence” in Ukrainian media.

She said that Moscow sees both incidents as an attempt to hinder “ongoing international efforts to bring about a sustainable peace.”

The spokeswoman went on to call for condemnation of both incidents, stating that they "threaten freedom of navigation in this waterway."

Ukrainian authorities have not commented on either incident and have yet to respond to Zakharova's statement.