'Successful' Ukrainian naval drone strike disables 2 Russian shadow fleet tankers, source says
Ukrainian Sea Baby naval drones struck two sanctioned Russian oil tankers, Kairos and Virat, on Nov. 28, disabling vessels tied to the Kremlin's shadow fleet, a Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) source told the Kyiv Independent on Nov. 29.
The operation targeted ships off Turkey's Black Sea coast that, according to the source, could have transported nearly $70 million worth of oil and helped Moscow bypass international sanctions.
The source told the Kyiv Independent that both tankers were en route to the Russian port of Novorossiysk to load cargo and were empty at the time of the attack.
The source said the drones "successfully completed their work on the ships," adding that the joint operation with the Ukrainian Navy dealt "a significant blow to Russian oil transportation."
Video provided by the source shows both tankers suffering critical damage.
The blasts hit vessels with long histories of sanctions evasion.
The shadow fleet consists of tankers that rely on opaque ownership, flags of convenience, and irregular shipping practices to move Russian oil despite Western restrictions.
Bloomberg reported that Kairos was returning to Novorossiysk after delivering Urals crude to India. Virat, sanctioned by the U.S. and EU for Russian oil transport, spent much of the year idle in the western Black Sea after being added to the U.S. sanctions list on Jan. 10.
