Nine tankers burned in the Sea of Azov overnight, and with them, Ukraine says, a 72-hour run of strikes reached 21 vessels.
The figure comes from Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, who confirmed the latest attacks. Nineteen of the 21 were sanctions-evading tankers from Russia’s shadow fleet, according to The Express. The rest were a bulk carrier and a ferry that ran between Crimea and Russia. Moscow has not confirmed the losses, and Russian state media acknowledged only “incidents” involving vessels, Narwhal TV reported.
What was hit
The previous day, a convoy of eight tankers came under attack in the Sea of Azov. Seven were identified as the Venera-3, Sanar-1, Sanar-17, Klymena, Teti, Aleksey Savrasov and Penelope. The Captain Barmin and Sanar-4 were struck Monday. The names of the nine tankers hit overnight were not released at first.
Brovdi said the campaign against Russia’s oil fleet had reached “industrial-scale” proportions. “We will stand firm. Moscow will fall. We will feed and rebuild Crimea,” he said. His units also reported 53 military objectives hit, six of them power stations in Crimea, a region the Express described as short of fuel, electricity and water.
War analyst Anatoliy Shariy, who has 1.1 million followers, summed up the footage in a few words. “It’s just sheer destruction,” he said.
How the fleet got here
Narwhal TV, citing a Seatrade Maritime report, said several targets were logistics and support ships that Russia relies on to resupply Crimea, and that most strikes used Magura V5 and similar uncrewed sea drones. Neptune anti-ship missiles supplemented them, according to that account. The outlet put Russia’s Black Sea Fleet at roughly 40 combat-capable surface ships at the start of the war and said an estimated one-third have since been damaged or destroyed. That outlet’s account differs from The Express, which describes tankers and non-naval vessels rather than warships, and neither set of claims has been independently confirmed.
Narwhal TV added that the Moskva cruiser sank in April 2022 and that Ukrainian strikes since have pushed much of the fleet westward, away from Ukrainian coastal waters. It also said Ukraine set up its own shipping corridor in late 2023 after Russia withdrew from the UN-brokered grain deal.
Strikes farther inland
On Wednesday morning Zelensky confirmed long-range attacks on the Saratov region, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, roughly 800, 1,400 and 1,500 kilometers from the front line. “They also reached the Voronezh region, about 300 kilometers from our border,” he said. In a post on X he wrote: “The Saratov oil refinery was hit. Warriors of the Special Operations Forces struck an oil refinery in Tatarstan. Russians must feel that their state is waging this war.”
The strikes landed while Zelensky attended a NATO leaders’ summit in Ankara. The Express reported that Putin had rejected his proposal to stop fighting and open peace negotiations.
Sources
- Ukraine Hits 21 Russian Ships in 72 Hours
- Ukraine causes 'sheer destruction' as it destroys 21 Russian vessels in 72 hours
