Russian ruler Vladimir Putin claimed that the recent Ukrainian attack on a liquid natural gas (LNG) tanker was an act of terrorism. According to the Transport Ministry in Moscow, the ship was targeted by a drone near Malta this week.

Putin stated that “this is a terrorist attack” and added it’s not the first time that Russia has faced energy-related terrorism.

Russia continues to call attacks on it terrorism, as the war appears to have no end in sight.

Russia Accuses Ukraine Of Another Terrorist Attack

The Russia-flagged Arctic Metagaz was targeted this week close to Malta’s territorial waters. According to Russia’s Transport Ministry, Ukrainian unmanned boats launched from the Libyan coast hit the LNG carrier, which had been sailing from Murmansk. All 30 crew members were safely evacuated.

Putin claimed that Kiev is now preparing, “with the support of some Western intelligence services, to sabotage the Blue Stream and TurkStream” gas pipelines running under the Black Sea, “just as the Nord Stream pipelines were once blown up.” He said it is “a very dangerous game” by Ukraine, adding that Moscow has already informed the Turkish side.

The September 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea is the largest attack on underwater energy infrastructure in modern history. While the theory that it was carried out by a group of Ukrainian divers has become mainstream in the West, Moscow has been skeptical about that version, suggesting instead that Western state actors may have had a hand in the sabotage. -RT

Poland Arrests Ukrainian Diver Over Nord Stream Sabotage Explosions

FSB chief Aleksandr Bortnikov warned last October that Ukraine and the United Kingdom were jointly preparing an attack on the TurkStream pipeline. London and Kiev have also been plotting attacks on other critical infrastructure sites in Russia, using sea and aerial drones, as well as saboteur divers, Bortnikov said at the time, according to a report by RT. 

In December 2025, Kiev acknowledged striking the Qendil, a Russia-linked and Omani-flagged oil tanker, in the eastern Mediterranean off Libya’s coast. At the time, Euronews cited a Ukrainian intelligence source describing the attack as “an unprecedented special operation.” -RT