The burning ship, which is docked close to a Romanian village, “could explode at any time,” local authorities say.
Romanian authorities evacuated a village on the border with Ukraine after Russian drones set ablaze a tanker loaded with gas on the Danube River, just meters from EU and NATO territory.
The village of Plauru in the commune of Ceatalchioi sits a short distance from the burning ship, which “could explode at any time,” Tudor Cernega, the mayor of Ceatalchioi, told Romanian news site Digi24.
“We checked house by house, we also took out the animals,” the mayor said. “We closed off traffic, the danger is great.”
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Romania’s Department for Emergency Situations said in a statement on social media the blaze was the result of a “drone attack carried out on the territory of Ukraine” on Sunday night, which caused “a ship loaded with LPG” to be “engulfed in flames in the area of Izmail,” a Ukrainian port city in the southwest of the country bordering Romania.
The department added it had ordered the evacuation of the entire commune of Ceatalchioi, which is home to about 250 people, and would send vehicles and ambulances.
The ship, the Turkish-flagged ORINDA, is capable of carrying about 1.8 million gallons of liquefied petroleum gas. Its crew were also evacuated after the blaze broke out, with video showing plumes of fire and smoke billowing from the vessel.
Moscow has frequently targeted Ukrainian port facilities situated on the Danube throughout its full-scale invasion, with drone parts found on Romania’s side of the river on several occasions.
“After a Russian attack damaged a vessel with LNG in the Odesa region, Romania had to evacuate its border village,” said Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. “Russia’s brutal escalation of terror threatens not only Ukraine but also our neighbors. This underscores the urgency of collective pressure on Moscow to end the war.”
A spokesperson for NATO declined to comment on the Russian attack.