Ukraine struck 12 vessels belonging to Russia’s shadow fleet in the Black Sea on Thursday night, the commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert Brovdi, announced on Telegram.
The attacks aim to prevent Russia from supplying fuel to the occupied regions of Eastern Ukraine and Crimea and curb its effort to circumvent sanctions, Brovdi explained. “The goal is incurable paralysis of oil, fuel, cargo logistics in circumvention of sanctions,” the commander wrote.
Overall, 159 ships from the shadow fleet of the Russian Federation were hit in the last 10 days, Brovdi writes: “117 ships in the Azov Sea, and 42 ️units in the Black Sea.”
Kyiv has recently intensified the attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure. Ukrainian drones regularly hit the Kremlin’s oil refineries as well as fuel tankers along the “Novorossia 280 highway” — the main route connecting Russia to the occupied territories and Crimea. As a result, a significant energy and utility crisis with widespread power and water outages has emerged in the region.
To maintain fuel supplies to Crimea, Moscow stepped up shipments by small vessels across the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, linking southern Russia with the occupied peninsula. In response, Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces launched Operation Molochka (Moscow will fall through Crimea) in July to further disrupt the supply chain.