Ukraine has reportedly struck a number of oil tankers off the coasts of Turkey and West Africa in a marketing campaign in opposition to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, months after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy known as for Kyiv’s companions to strengthen their response to the vessels that Moscow makes use of to evade worldwide sanctions and proceed promoting its pure sources.
Ukraine has beforehand focused gas tankers and infrastructure in Russian ports and on land as a part of its efforts to undermine the essential supply of Moscow’s conflict funding, however the current assaults reported by Ukrainian media, citing the nation’s intelligence companies, have taken place outdoors Russia’s territorial waters.
Europe and the U.S. have sanctioned lots of of ships within the shadow fleet, accusing them of violating bans on Russian oil gross sales, transporting stolen Ukrainian grain, and even suspected of spying on or damaging underwater telecommunications cables and pipelines.
In October, Zelenskyy mentioned Kyiv’s intelligence service was offering data to European companions and “expect that efforts to counter Russian interference will be significantly strengthened.”
“The SBU continues to take active steps to curtail Russia’s financial capabilities to wage war against Ukraine,” an SBU supply mentioned. “Sea Child naval drones disabled ships that would transport oil price virtually $70 million and helped the Kremlin circumvent worldwide sanctions.
Publicly obtainable ship monitoring knowledge corroborated the BTA report suggesting the Turkish tug had separated from the tanker six miles from Bulgaria’s coast. The Kairos was stranded on Tuesday off Ahtopol, on Bulgaria’s southern Black Beach, with out warmth or electrical energy, in accordance with BTA.
The Kairos has been stranded off the Bulgarian coast because it ran aground on December 5
MarineTraffic.com
The Bulgarian Navy airlifted a number of crew members to shore, however authorities had been unable to tow the oil tanker to security as of Tuesday on account of poor climate circumstances.
Late final month, the technical supervisor of one other tanker, the Mersin, mentioned the vessel was impacted by a sequence of explosions whereas anchored off the coast of Senegal. The crew was rescued, in accordance with Senegalese officers, and the vessel’s technical supervisor, Besiktas Transport, mentioned seawater flooded into the engine room however the ship remained “safe” and posed no security or navigational dangers.
The Mersin remained stranded with some 30,000 tons of diesel gas on board, nevertheless, in accordance with the African Safety Evaluation suppose tank.
The tanker departed from the Russian port of Taman on August 21 and arrived in Senegal in late September, the place it has remained at anchor, in accordance with open-source knowledge from MarineTraffic. Whereas the Mersin will not be at present among the many vessels sanctioned by the U.S., ships operated by BesiktasShipping have engaged in extremely dangerous ship-to-ship crude oil transfers whereas anchored, in accordance with the sanctions compliance monitoring group OpenSanctions.
Open-source data reveals the Mersin at anchor off the coast of Dakar on December 9, 2025
MarineTraffic.com
Ukrainian officers haven’t publicly confirmed any involvement in any of the explosions within the Black Sea or off the coast of Africa, all of which occurred inside just a few days. On Dec. 3, Besiktas Transport mentioned it was instantly ceasing all “Russia related voyages.”
Whereas insisting that it all the time complied and complies with restrictions on Russian oil shipments, the corporate mentioned “the security situation in the region has escalated considerably,” and “we have concluded that the risks posed to our vessels and crew have become untenable.”
European nations have imposed a number of rounds of sanctions on lots of of vessels they are saying are a part of the Russian shadow fleet, however a deliberate European Union-wide transfer to permit nationwide authorities to board and examine suspected ships has but to materialize.
Shadow fleet vessels have additionally been linked to drone sightings at European airports, together with final week when unidentified drones breached Irish airspace throughout a go to from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The EU and America’s European NATO allies have issued growing warnings about Russia’s alleged hybrid warfare ways in current months, together with the drone airspace incursions and sabotage operations throughout the continent and at sea.
