Ukraine announced on Thursday it seized a Russian oil tanker, Neyma, in the Ismail port on the Danube, on the border with Romania, on the charge that it was involved in the 2018 naval incident, AFP reports.

The oil tanker would have participated, according to Kiev, in the seizure by Russia of Ukrainian military ships off the Crimea in November last year. The oil tanker would have been used to block Ukrainian ships.

This tanker arrived in the Ukrainian port of Ismail in the Odessa region on Wednesday where it was seized, the Ukrainian security services said, Hotnews quoted.

According to the Ukrainian authorities, Nika Spirit, who sailed under the Russian flag, was identified in the port of Izmail as the Neyma ship which participated in the Kerch Strait operation on the basis of the unique shipping reference number of the International Maritime Organization. “We are in the process of establishing all the circumstances of what has happened to take the appropriate measures,” a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “If it is a takeover of Russian hostages, this will be considered a gross violation of international law and the consequences will not be expected,” he said.