Ship full of fuel train cars detonates in Russian port, Ukrainian Neptune missile suspected

A Russian Roll On Roll Off (RORO) vessel filled with fuel train cars was hit and sunk by a Ukrainian missile near the Kerchi Bridge, Russian media and milbloggers claim. The fate of more than a dozen crew members after the attack in the Black Sea port of Kavkaz remains unknown.

“After the Ukrainian armed forces hit the Neptun with a missile, 15 people on board Merchant Conro with the fuel tanks gone,” the Russian The base the news station reported on Telegram. “The ship, damaged as a result of the attack by the Ukrainian armed forces, sank in the waters of Kavkaz port. This was reported by the operational headquarters of the Krasnodar Territory. They added that there are no sources of fire on the territory of the port itself.”

After the attack, videos appeared on social media showing the ship engulfed in flames, with thick plumes of black smoke rising into the air.

Fire and flames were visible far in the distance.

The Merchant Conro it was carrying 30 fuel tanks when it was hit, Russian milblogger Vladimir Rogov claimed on Telegram. A dozen fire brigades, three ambulance brigades and other first responders are on the scene, he added.

“The supply of fuel to Crimea is carried out by different routes, the problems do not threaten the peninsula,” he explained, citing the Crimean authorities.

Traffic on the Kerchi Bridge was temporarily stopped as a result of the Russian strike SHOT said a Telegram news channel.

The claim that the ship was hit by a Neptune missile is plausible, a Ukrainian defense official told us. As we first reported a year ago, Ukraine has adapted the Neptune anti-ship missile for longer range and ground attack capability.

The missile likely traveled 150 to 180 miles to hit Kavkaz, the official said, adding that the converted Neptunes have a maximum range of 190 miles with a 350-pound warhead.

The Neptune had previously gained notoriety after two were used to strike the Russian Navy’s Project 1164. Glory class cruiser Moscow in the Black Sea in April 2022. You can read more about it in our story here. The missile had just entered very limited service when the war began, with few on hand for operational applications.

The Neptune ground attack is believed to use a scene/image matching infrared image seeker to track its terminal attack. This would make sense for hitting a docked ship, as Storm Shadows and SCALP-EGs using a similar guidance system have repeatedly done. Traditional anti-ship missiles with radar seekers are not suitable for hitting ships in complex harbor areas.

However, we cannot confirm what hit this ship – a Neptune or any other type of weapon – if anything hit it. There is also the possibility that an accident on board led to the destruction seen in the clips above.

If Ukraine did attack the Kavkaz, it would be just the latest Ukrainian strike on Russia’s energy supply and infrastructure.

A massive fire at a Russian oil depot in Proletarsk, Rostov Region is still burning five days after it was hit by Ukrainian drones. It is located approximately 250 miles from the front line.

The governor of the city of Rostov said on Thursday that at least 13 firefighters were hospitalized after battling the blaze and that more measures were underway to try to put it out.

“To prevent the occurrence of a landscape fire nearby, additional mineralized strips were created around the industrial site, Vasily Golubev told Telegram. “Also, two water drops were carried out today on the adjacent territory by Il-76 (Candid) aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.”

“I receive regular reports on the progress of the extinguishment,” he added. “According to experts from operational rescue units, there is no threat of the fire spreading to residential buildings and other objects.”

These attacks are affecting Russia’s economy, which relies heavily on energy exports. Although it still appears to be supplying natural gas to Europe, one of the first targets of the Kursk invasion was the Sudzha gas metering station. It is “the last operational transshipment point for Russian gas exports to Europe via Ukraine, according to Reuters.

While Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have caused widespread damage, Ukrainian attacks on Russian fuel depots and the Russian power grid have also taken a huge toll, said Pavel Luzin, Senior Fellow, Democratic Resilience at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).

“I think this coming winter may be the first winter where the people on the Russian side will feel it harder than the people on the Ukrainian side,” he said during a Thursday morning discussion about Ukraine’s Kursk invasion.

Contact the author: [email protected]