Turkish Ro-Ro passenger vessel 'Cenk T' hit in Russian airstrike on two ports in Ukraine's Odesa

A massive fire broke out aboard the Turkish-owned RoPax vessel Cenk T (IMO: 7528635) on Friday, following a massive Russian airstrike on various parts of Ukraine's Odesa Oblast. 

The Panama-flagged RoPax vessel, said to be carrying essential supplies at the time of the airstrike, had been anchored at the Chornomorsk Port—one of two targets of Russian ballistic missiles, with the other being the Odesa Port. A RoPax is a type of Ro-Ro vessel that has been modified to carry passengers as well.

Drone attacks also targeted other regions of the Odesa Oblast, such as Pivdennyi, home to the Pivdennyi Seaport—one of Ukraine's largest and most profitable ports.

Three Turkish-owned vessels—including the Cenk T, which was owned by Cenk RoRo—were damaged after the attack, days after Moscow threatened to cut "Ukraine off from the sea", as per a Reuters report, citing Ukrainian naval sources.

Visuals from the Chornomorsk Port showed the Cenk T engulfed in flames and thick fumes issuing from most of its windows. The blaze continued strongly overnight into Saturday, despite firefighters' best attempts.

"We ... reiterate the necessity of an arrangement whereby (Russia and Ukraine) suspend attacks targeting the safety of navigation as well as each other's energy and port infrastructure in order to prevent escalation in the Black Sea," Turkey's foreign ministry said in a statement on X after the aerial attack.

Yet, Erdogan has said that "peace is not far away" after his latest meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Erdogan had earlier met Putin on Friday, at which point he had suggested that a limited ceasefire in the war—focused on energy facilities and ports—could be beneficial to both Moscow and Kyiv.

The Friday attack comes a day after Ukraine conducted its first-ever drone strike on the Lukoil-owned Filanovsky rig, one part of a massive Russian offshore oil field in the Caspian Sea on Thursday, which caused a major halt in oil production.

At least four long-range aerial drones hit the Filanovsky rig, halting operations in more than 20 oil and gas wells, an official from Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) said.

Also, just last week, Putin had vowed to take revenge for Ukraine's maritime drone attacks on Russia's "shadow fleet" tankers, which were reportedly carrying oil, which Kyiv claims is Moscow's main source of funding in the nearly four-year-old war.