“Ready to see the next shadow showdown?” Robert Brovdi wrote on Telegram, then announced nine more hits. Brovdi, who goes by the callsign “Madyar,” commands Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces.
The new strikes came overnight on July 8, when long-range drones hit nine Russian-linked tankers in the Sea of Azov, according to Brovdi. Operators from the Kairos Battalion of the 414th Magyar’s Birds, along with Raid 413 and the 1st Army Corps unit, carried them out, the Unmanned Systems Forces said in a post. A day earlier Ukraine had claimed hits on eight similar vessels in the same area.
Brovdi’s tally for 72 hours: 21 vessels, including 19 shadow fleet tankers, a cargo ship and a ferry near the Kerch Strait off Crimea. The claims have not been independently verified, and Russia had not commented when London Business News published its account.
Named tankers and the wider barrage
The Express reported that the previous day’s convoy of eight tankers included the Venera-3, Sanar-1, Sanar-17, Klymena, Teti, Aleksey Savrasov and Penelope. The Captain Barmin and Sanar-4 were hit on Monday. Names of the nine tankers struck overnight were not disclosed right away.
The Birds of Magyar also reported hitting 53 military objectives, six of them power stations in Crimea. Russian-installed Crimean leader Sergey Aksyonov said air defenses intercepted 27 Ukrainian drones overnight and into the morning, and he reported no casualties.
Brovdi described the effort against Russia’s oil fleet as “industrial-scale.” “We will stand firm. Moscow will fall. We will feed and rebuild Crimea,” he said.
The shadow fleet is made up of ageing tankers that operate through secretive ownership networks and foreign registrations, which lets Russia keep exporting oil and petroleum products despite sanctions. Ukraine has been hitting these vessels to squeeze Russian energy revenue and disrupt the logistics behind its military. Russian-installed authorities began rationing fuel in Crimea in late May after supply disruptions.
The Express put the strikes against the backdrop of a NATO leaders’ summit in Ankara, which Zelensky was attending, and said Putin had rejected his proposal to stop fighting and open peace talks.
Strikes deeper inside Russia
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. The Voronezh region, about 300 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, was reached too. “The Saratov oil refinery was hit,” he wrote on X. Special Operations Forces struck a refinery in Tatarstan. “Russians must feel that their state is waging this war.”
War analyst Anatoliy Shariy, who has 1.1 million followers, called what he saw “just sheer destruction.”
Sources
- Putin warned 'Moscow will fall' as Ukraine drones strike 21 Russian shadow fleet vessels in 72 hours – London Business News | Londonlovesbusiness.com
- Ukraine causes 'sheer destruction' as it destroys 21 Russian vessels in 72 hours
