Drone Strike Sets Turkish Tanker Ablaze Near Odesa as U.S. LNG Route Is Secured

Drone strike at Izmail

A drone struck the Turkish-flagged tanker MT Orinda on Monday while it was unloading liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) at the port of Izmail in Ukraine’s Odesa region, setting the vessel on fire, officials said. Turkey’s Directorate for Maritime Affairs reported that all 16 crew members evacuated safely and there were no injuries.

Damage and local impact

Regional officials said the overnight attacks on the Odesa region damaged port and energy infrastructure, ignited multiple fires and harmed an unspecified number of civilian vessels. Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa regional military administration, said one person was injured in the strikes. Romanian authorities ordered precautionary evacuations of people and animals in two villages on their side of the border near Izmail because of the tanker’s cargo.

Connection to U.S. LNG route

The attack came a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed an agreement to route U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Odesa. Under the plan, LNG shipments arriving at the northern Greek port of Alexandroupolis are to be transported via pipelines to Odesa beginning in January — a step Kyiv says will help bolster its energy supplies ahead of winter as Russia continues to target Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

Other attacks across Ukraine

Separately, Russian missile strikes killed three people and injured 11 in Balakliya, Kharkiv region, overnight. In Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian drones and artillery killed two people and wounded two others, damaging high-rise apartments, shops and a hair salon, regional authorities reported. The United Nations estimates that Russian strikes have killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians since the full-scale invasion began.

Military activity and cross-border incidents

Ukraine’s air force reported that Russia fired two Iskander‑M ballistic missiles and launched 128 strike and decoy drones across the country overnight. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 36 Ukrainian drones overnight as Kyiv seeks to strike back at Russian power infrastructure. A Ukrainian drone attack also damaged an electricity substation in Russia’s Ulyanovsk region, Governor Aleksey Russkikh said, reporting no casualties and no disruption to local power supplies.

Outlook

Authorities continue investigations into the Izmail incident and assessments of port and energy damage. The juxtaposition of the tanker strike and the new U.S. LNG routing highlights Kyiv’s efforts to secure alternative energy supplies while sustaining maritime and land-based trade under persistent attack.