Nel frattempo rischiamo un disastro ecologico qui nel Mar Mediterraneo, e i responsabili – il governo ucraino – non sono nemmeno menzionati nell’articolo. Tutto questo solo per danneggiare la Russia. Qualunque cosa facciano, proprio come Israele, non vengono mai incolpati dal mainstream occidentale.

Isn’t it a bit ironic that Roberta Metsola is very visible when meeting and supporting Ukraine, yet we’re not hearing much publicly from her about the situation with the damaged Russian LNG tanker drifting in the Mediterranean?

There are reports and claims that the vessel may have been hit by Ukrainian drones (though this hasn’t been officially confirmed). Given the potential environmental and safety risk so close to Malta, I would have expected at least some acknowledgement from EU leadership.

Also a genuine question: since Metsola now serves as President of the European Parliament, does Malta effectively lose an active voice in the chamber? Should smaller countries like Malta have an additional seat when one of their elected MEPs takes on an institutional role?

lol, imagine thinking we have to do anything to harm Russia. Like they aren’t doing a great job on that on their own.

You can’t compare Ukraine to Israel on this one chief. Although I do agree a lot of media outlets (not all, tbf) are very soft on the coverage of Israel’s genocidal conduct.

As to this specific event, Ukraine hasn’t acknowledged responsibility for this. It could be a false flag op from Russia to reduce Western support for Ukraine. Too many unknowns. Also, even it was a Ukrainian strike, there’s a huge distinction between targets and motivations. Israel is committing genocide and hitting civilian population centres and medical facilities… plus the whole blockade and starvation debacle. Ukraine is conducting limited strikes on Russia’s military and keyboard supporting industries.

Anyways. On to the meat of this. The potential environmental impact. We are lucky it is only an LNG tanker. The 700 tonnes of fuel oil on-board, if all spilled, would be considered a large oil spill as per [source.](https://www.itopf.org/knowledge-resources/data-statistics/oil-tanker-spill-statistics-2025/) However, it’s at the very absolute minimum end of that classification, and in an event of a spill, it’s unlikely that all the fuel would spill.

It is unlikely that this tanker will cause an environmental disaster. Authorities are prepared and the situation is being monitored. Sure, it could have negative environmental impacts, but compared to really bad events that happen and than are reacted to – this tanker and its situation has afforded Malta, Italy and other potential recipient States a significant amount of prep time.

The main priorities for Malta will be preventing impacts/contamination from affecting its RO plants, power station cooling water intakes, sensitive ecological sites and key tourism locations.

I’m concerned about how well any plan will be executed, but I’m not panicking about it. Source: IMO OPCR trained in levels 1-3 and HNS, as a marine environmental manager.

Side note: I’m more worried for the people that will need to get up close and personal woth the tanker at some point. High risk of explosions of noxious fumes. Malta’s CPD and AFM will have a very challenging exercise on their hands if they need to intervene.