"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Teddy Roosevelt 1910
A large column of dark black smoke is rising from a fire near the Port of Sochi, Russia, after an apparent explosion. The cause and what exactly exploded have not been confirmed, though local reports suggest it came from a ship at the port.
Sochi has been hit repeatedly in recent weeks. On September 3, a Ukrainian naval drone struck the port, and Ukraine's Navy said it hit the offshore support vessel Nefrit. A fire at an oil depot near the city's airport followed on September 4 and reignited on September 7.
The incident comes as commercial shipping in the western Black Sea is under attack. On Monday, the Turkish owned grain carrier Royad Mammadov sank off Romania after a drone strike, killing two crew. Early Tuesday, drones hit two more Turkish owned ships about 70 nautical miles off Bulgaria, the first attack on shipping in its exclusive economic zone. The Alfa Watan sank with its crew missing.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed Russia for the Romania strike. Romania has not named a suspect, and Bulgaria's prime minister did not say who launched the drones. Both countries are NATO members, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said commercial ships and crews are being targeted.