Ukraine struck 23 vessels tied to Russia’s shadow fleet over two nights, while parallel strikes hit a railway hub in occupied Kerch, in what commander Robert “Madyar” Brovdi describes as a campaign to disable rather than destroy Moscow’s sanctions-evading logistics.
Brovdi, head of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, said operators struck 11 vessels on July 16 and 12 more on July 17, calling the goal a transformation of self-propelled tankers into “blind and deaf” barges adrift at sea, according to Ukrainska Pravda. Brovdi has said the operation deliberately avoids hull breaches to prevent oil spills, per Marine Insight, a choice that denies Moscow grounds to frame the campaign as an environmental hazard.
Among the targets, Ukraine’s Security Service said the tanker Louise 1 alone moved almost 3 million tons of Russian Urals crude in 2026, transporting it from Baltic and Black Sea ports while evading G7 and EU price-cap enforcement by disabling its identification transponder, Kyiv Post reported.
The maritime strikes coincided with a separate overnight attack on a railway hub near Kerch, close to the Crimean Bridge, where explosions triggered fires at warehouses, rail infrastructure, and possibly an oil depot, according to Kyiv Post. Ukrainian monitoring channels reported the same night’s strikes hit six additional tankers in the Black Sea.
Since Operation MoLoChKa began on July 6, Ukraine says it has struck 159 shadow-fleet vessels across the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, according to Ukrinform.
