According to the Greek Ministry of Maritime Affairs, the Maran Homer ship with 24 sailors on board was hit on the morning of March 14 while moving about 14 nautical miles from the Russian coast, near the port of Novorossiysk - one of Russia's most important oil export centers in the Black Sea.
Greek Maritime Minister Vassilis Kikilias said the crew included 10 Greeks, 13 Filipinos and 1 Romanian. Fortunately, no one was injured in the attack.
According to information from the owner of the ship Maran Tankers Management Inc, the ship was en route to a port belonging to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) system to receive a batch of crude oil from Kazakhstan. The attack only caused minor material damage to the deck and some equipment.
Although it did not cause casualties, the incident caused a strong reaction from the Greek government. Minister Kikilias called this an "unacceptable" action against civilian ships flying Greek flags or owned by Greek businesses, and said Athens would bring this issue to the level of the European Council to protest.
In recent months, many oil and LNG transport ships related to Russia have been attacked, mainly by drones or unmanned boats that Moscow believes are deployed by Kiev.
Last week, the Russian-flagged LNG tanker Arctic Metagaz was attacked by a drone in the central Mediterranean area off Malta. All 30 Russian sailors were rescued by Russian and Maltese rescue forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin then called the attack an "act of terrorism".
Previously in January, the Maltese-flagged oil tanker Matilda was also attacked by drones in the Black Sea. According to Kazakhstan's state-owned oil company KazMunayGas, this ship was chartered to transport oil from the port of Novorossiysk within the framework of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium joint venture.
This is a key oil export route from Kazakhstan to the world market, with the participation of many international energy corporations.
Ukraine has long declared that it considers Russia's oil and gas infrastructure in the Black Sea as a strategic target, aiming to put pressure on energy revenue - a pillar of Russia's budget.
Attacks by unmanned aerial vehicles at sea and in the air have repeatedly targeted oil ports, energy tankers and related logistics facilities.
In November last year, Ukrainian naval drones also disrupted the operation of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, a pipeline project with the participation of US oil and gas corporations such as Chevron and ExxonMobil.
