Tanker tactics: Ukraine expands Black Sea campaign with drone strikes on Russian vessels
First, Ukraine took aim at Russia's oil refineries.
Now it's going a step further by targeting poorly defended Russian vessels transporting sanctioned oil across the Black Sea.
Ukraine has escalated these tactics in recent weeks, striking two oiltankerslinked to Russia's shadow fleet off Turkey’s Black Sea coast.
The sanctioned oil tankers Kairo and Virat were sailing empty, believed to be heading to load in the port of Novorossiysk.
During their passage, Ukraine sent waterborne drones speeding through the waves to the vessels, causing them to burst into flames and sending black smoke into the air.
A source from Ukraine's Security Service told Ukrainian online newspaper The Kyiv Independent that the vessels were capable of transporting nearly $70m worth of oil.
An escalation in tactics
Ukraine has been targeting Russia's oil refineries since 2023, ramping up in the past few months using homegrown aerial drones. Now, they're damaging the vessels transporting Russia's oil, not just its military fleet or the infrastructure enabling it.
The strikes also show a major expansion of Ukraine's Black Sea campaign, with their naval drones reaching further than we've seen before.
The Russian shadow fleet is made up of tankers used by Russia to transport crude oil, driving Moscow’s economy and helping fund its war on Ukraine.
They aim to bypass Western sanctions using vessels with obscure ownership.
In response to a query about the attacks, President Vladimir Putin told journalists: "What the Ukrainian armed forces are doing now is piracy."
Baby by name, not baby by nature
The operation was reportedly carried out using Sea Baby naval drones worth around $220,000 each.
Ukraine's security service, the SBU, unveiled a new generation of these drones in October. Doubling the previous limit, they now operate at distances over 1,500 km and can carry a payload of up to around 2,000 kg.
"Our drones changed the balance of power in the Black Sea and increased their effectiveness", said the head of the SBU, Lieutenant General Vasyl Malyuk.
Game-changing technology
Small and fast unmanned surface vehicles have changed the course of naval warfare. Thanks to them, Russia is increasingly losing its ships and is forced to hide them away from the Ukrainian coast.
Russia has previously targeted Ukrainian vessels in the Black Sea using cruise missiles, but its naval drone technology is significantly behind Ukraine's.
A video circulated in late November shows the tanker M/T MERSIN slowly sinking off the coast of Senegal's capital, Dakar. The tanker is alleged to have regularly visited the port of Novorossiysk and be affiliated with the Russian shadow fleet.
It's unconfirmed whether Ukraine was involved in its sinking.
Several days later, Turkey’s maritime authority said a Russian-flagged tanker loaded with sunflower oil had been attacked by a drone off the Turkish coast.
However, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesman firmly denied that it was involved in the incident, writing on X: "Ukraine has nothing to do with this incident, and we officially refute any allegations of such kind made by Russian propaganda."
Heorhiy Tykhy also went a step further and suggested it may have been a false flag operation by Russia, adding: "Furthermore, the alleged route from Russia to Georgia across Turkey’s EEZ [Exclusive Economic Zone] makes no sense – and suggests that Russia may have staged the whole thing."
Nonetheless, Ukraine's confirmed tanker attacks on Kairo and Virat serve as a warning - that ships carrying Russian oil face the risk of a direct strike as Ukraine now has further reach across the Black Sea.
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