Ukraine Attacks Russian Gas Carrier Near Malta in Mediterranean

Ukraine attacked the Russian gas carrier Arktik Metagaz in the Mediterranean Sea, according to a statement published by the Russian Ministry of Transport on its official Telegram channel.

Photo: Wikipedia by JoachimKohlerBremen, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Gas carrier ship

Images of the damaged Russian gas carrier later appeared online. The photographs were published by the project OSINTtechnical on the social media platform X. An aerial image shows visible damage to the port side of the vessel.

The ministry claims that on March 3 the vessel came under attack by Ukrainian unmanned surface boats near Malta's territorial waters. According to the statement, the drones were launched from the Libyan coastline.

Crew Rescued After Strike

Officials reported that Maltese and Russian rescue services coordinated efforts to evacuate the entire crew. All 30 crew members, who are Russian citizens, were successfully rescued.

"We classify what happened as an act of international terrorism and maritime piracy, a gross violation of the fundamental norms of international maritime law. Such criminal actions, carried out with the acquiescence of authorities of European Union member states, must not remain without assessment by the international community,” the statement said.

Political Context and Prior Statements

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged European countries to seize Russian oil from tankers and sell it independently. He stated that he considers such actions permissible, arguing that vessels allegedly linked to Russia's so-called shadow fleet had already been stopped by the United States.