The two gas tankers that caught fire in the Black Sea off the coast of Crimea Monday were probably trying to evade U.S. sanctions and run liquefied petroleum gas from Temryuk, a Russian Sea of Azov port, to Syria

The two gas tankers that caught fire in the Black Sea off the coast of Crimea Monday were probably trying to evade U.S. sanctions and run liquefied petroleum gas from Temryuk, a Russian Sea of Azov port, to Syria, Reuters reports from Moscow. In the blaze, 20 of the combined crew of 32 are believed dead and both ships sank. In the scheme, Reuters’ sources say, one sanctioned ship changed its name from ‘Candy’ to ‘Venice’, picked up gas at Temryuk, then tried to transfer the gas in stormy weather to a second sanctioned ship, the Maestro. The fire took place south of the Kerch bridge, in international waters