Two ocean-going tankers that are heavily sanctioned for carrying Russian oil suffered near-simultaneous blasts off Turkey’s Black Sea coast. Turkey cited “external intervention” as a possible reason while announcing that one of the tankers was hit for a second time.
The first tanker, the 900-foot Kairos, was taking on water after an explosion, according to a local port agent report. Turkey’s Directorate General for Maritime Affairs confirmed the incident and said a second ship, the Virat, had also been struck near its coastline and was billowing smoke. The causes are unclear and a rescue operation for both ships was underway.
The pair are two of hundreds of vessels that were amassed to help keep Russia’s oil moving after it invaded Ukraine. Kairos is sanctioned by the UK and European Union, while Virat was designated by the US and EU.
It’s not the first time that ships linked to Moscow have suffered explosions this year. There was also a spate of blasts in the early months of 2025 that hit merchant ships with a history of calling at Russian ports.
It’s not yet known what happened to these vessels and, if they were attacked, who was responsible.
“Both ships were in our territorial waters,” CNNTurk cited Turkey’s Transportation Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu as saying. “Initial information indicates an external intervention,” the minister said, without elaborating.
“Virat suffered a new attack in the morning hours,” the ministry said in a post on X on Saturday. The attack caused “small damage” and no fire was reported, according to the ministry. “Due to security reasons, rescue teams are waiting afar from the ship,” the ministry said in its post.
Spain’s navy, which issues navigational warnings in the region, says there’s also a significant risk posed by floating mines in parts of the Black Sea since the conflict began.
Kairos is a Suezmax-class vessel whose previous voyage was from the Russian port of Novorossiysk to Paradip in India, hauling Moscow’s flagship crude grade Urals. It was heading back to the Russian port to load its next cargo at the time of the incident, according to vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.
Like the Kairos, the Virat was empty at the time it was struck. It appears to have been idling in the western part of the Black Sea for most of the year after appearing on a US Office of Foreign Assets Control blacklist on Jan. 10.
The managers of both ships, as listed on the international safety database Equasis, didn’t respond to calls and emails requesting comment.
The Bosphorus, a key trade artery for commodities including Russian oil from ports in the Black Sea, remains open. The Kairos sails under the flag of Gambia, the agent said.
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