In a statement on Tuesday, Türkiye’s Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure’s General Directorate of Maritime Affairs said the MIDVOLGA-2 tanker, which was carrying sunflower oil, reported being attacked about 80 miles (120km) off the country’s coast.

“The ship, which currently has no adverse conditions among its 13 personnel, has issued no request for assistance. The ship is proceeding towards Sinop on its own engines,” officials said, without identifying the culprit behind the strike.

Later, Russia’s Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport said that the vessel had been attacked by a drone and had sustained some minor damage.

Last week, several explosives-laden sea drones struck two Gambian-flagged tankers – the Kairos and the Virat – off Türkiye’s coast, an assault Ukrainian media sources have described as a joint operation involving the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and Kiev’s navy.

In addition, a suspected Ukrainian drone attacked a crude hub on Russia’s Black Sea coast belonging to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), operated by Russia, Kazakhstan, the US, and several Western European nations.

Moscow has denounced the raids as “terrorist attacks,” with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also accusing Ukraine of encroaching on Turkish sovereignty.

While Ankara refrained from assigning blame, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli said the “incidents, which took place within our Exclusive Economic Zone in the Black Sea, have posed serious risks to navigation, human life, property and the environment.”

The ECB determined that the European Commission’s scheme falls outside its mandate, the newspaper reported.

The EU has spent months trying to tap frozen Russian central bank reserves to back a €140 billion ($160 billion) “reparations loan” for Kiev. Belgium, where around $200 billion of the assets is held at the privately owned Euroclear clearing house, has repeatedly warned of potential litigation as well as financial risks if the EU goes through with the scheme.

Under the European Commission’s plan, EU nations’ governments would provide state guarantees to share the repayment risk on the loan for Ukraine.

Commission officials, however, have warned that member states might be unable to mobilize cash quickly in an emergency, risking market strains.

EU officials reportedly asked the ECB whether it could act as a lender of last resort to Euroclear Bank, the Belgian depository’s lending arm, to prevent a liquidity crunch. ECB officials told the commission this was not possible, the FT reported, citing sources familiar with the talks.

“Such a proposal is not under consideration as it would likely violate EU treaty law prohibiting monetary financing,” the ECB said.

Brussels is now reportedly working on alternative ways to provide temporary liquidity to backstop the €140 billion loan.

“Ensuring the necessary liquidity for possible obligations to return the assets to the Russian central bank is an important part of a possible reparations loan,” the FT quoted an EC spokesperson as saying.

Euroclear CEO Valerie Urbain warned last week the move would be seen globally as “confiscation of central bank reserves, undermining the rule of law.” Moscow has repeatedly warned it would view any use of its sovereign assets as “theft” and respond with countermeasures.

The push comes as the cash-strapped EU faces pressure to finance Ukraine for the next two years amid Kiev’s cash crunch, with efforts to tap Russia’s assets intensifying as the US promotes a new initiative to settle the conflict. Economists estimate Ukraine is facing a budget gap of about $53 billion a year in 2025-2028, excluding additional military funding.

The country’s public and government-guaranteed debt ballooned to unseen levels of over $191 billion as of September, the Finance Ministry said. The IMF last month raised its debt forecasts for Ukraine, now predicting public debt at 108.6% of GDP.

The national plans of the 15 EU states include support for Ukraine, he said at a briefing.

He could not provide the exact amount, but said it was in billions, not millions of euros.

Earlier, the European Commission said that 19 out of 27 EU countries intend to participate in a 150 billion euro militarization program. Fifteen of the countries that joined the program agreed to send weapons to Ukraine. Regnier declined to say which countries refused to support Kiev.

The EU SAFE militarization program, created in January, finances joint military projects with the funds raised by the European Commission. Under this program, EU countries can send some of the purchased weapons to Ukraine, and involve Ukraine as a subcontractor for the production of some weapons or their components. Besides, Kiev intends to provide conditions for testing prototypes on the battlefield.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that the presence of third-country capital in the enterprises producing weapons in Ukraine does not give them immunity from Russian strikes. He has also repeatedly stated that any Western arms supplies to Kiev “are a legitimate target” for Russia.