 "Ukraine strikes Russian ‘shadow fleet’ oil tanker in Mediterranean for first time")
Ukraine said on Friday that it had struck a Russian “shadow fleet” oil tanker using aerial drones in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea, marking its first such attack in the region since the war began nearly four years ago.
The so-called shadow fleet, estimated to comprise as many as 1,000 vessels, regularly changes flags and operates with opaque ownership structures. The ships have allowed Russia to continue exporting crude oil and generating vital revenue despite international embargoes.
MarineTraffic data showed the tanker was positioned off the coast of Libya at around 1330 GMT. A Ukrainian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to specify the exact location of the vessel at the time of the strike or when the attack occurred.
European leaders and security experts have also raised concerns that some of these vessels have been used by Russia to carry out sabotage and other hostile activities across Europe.
Aerial footage supplied by the source showed a minor explosion on the deck of a tanker. Reuters verified that the vessel in the video was the Qendil by matching it with archival images, though it was unable to independently confirm the timing or precise location of the footage.
Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Russian oil refineries throughout 2024 and 2025, and in recent weeks has expanded its campaign. Kyiv has struck oil platforms in the Caspian Sea and claimed responsibility for sea-drone attacks on three tankers in the Black Sea.
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View AllThose tankers as well as the Oman-flagged Qendil are part of Russia’s so-called ”shadow fleet” – unregulated ships that Kyiv says are helping Moscow export large quantities of oil and fund its war in Ukraine despite Western sanctions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has threatened to sever Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea in response to the attacks on tankers, which he has derided as piracy.
There was no fresh comment from Moscow on the latest attack.
The Qendil was en route to the Russian port of Ust Luga in the Baltic Sea from the Indian port of Sikka, MarineTraffic data showed.
India is a major consumer of Russian oil, although it has faced pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to curb its purchases to reduce the oil revenue that Ukraine says is fuelling Russia’s full-scale war.
”We understand that it is returning to a port that is currently unknown,” an official from a European Union country told Reuters.
MULTI-STAGE MEASURES
The strike on the Qendil is notable not only because it was further away in the Mediterranean but also because it used aerial drones.
”This development reflects a stark expansion of Ukraine’s use of uncrewed aerial systems against maritime assets associated with Russia’s sanctioned oil export network,” British maritime risk-management group Vanguard said.
The Ukrainian official did not say how the drones reached the ship, but said the operation involved ”multi-stage” measures.
The SBU, the vast security agency behind the attack, has conducted highly sophisticated attacks against Russia, smuggling in dozens of drones for an operation to destroy strategic bombers at air bases far beyond the front in June.
There have also been a string of unexplained blasts on tankers that have called at Russian ports since December 2024.
Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in them, but maritime security sources suspect Kyiv is behind them, some involving limpet mines on vessels in the Mediterranean.
Two crew members of the Russian-flagged tanker Valeriy Gorchakov were killed this week in a Ukrainian drone attack on the southern Russian port of Rostov-on-Don.
With inputs from agencies
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