Nine tankers in one night. Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS) said its drones hit that many vessels from Russia’s so-called shadow fleet in the Sea of Azov on July 8, according to SBS commander Robert “Madyar” Brovdi.
Brovdi counted 19 shadow fleet tankers, plus one cargo vessel and one ferry, struck in the Kerch area over the previous 72 hours. United24 Media noted that the attacks, coming after a string of similar ones that week, suggest Kyiv is widening its pressure from military infrastructure to the commercial ships that help Russia pay for the war and sell its oil.
Who flew the mission
The night’s strikes were carried out by drone operators from the Kairos unit of the 414th Separate Brigade, known as “Birds of Madyar,” working with the 413th Separate Battalion “Raid” and the 1st Center of the Unmanned Systems Forces. The SBS Deep Strike Center coordinated, Brovdi said.
Ships were not the only targets. Drones struck 53 Russian military targets overnight in occupied Crimea and the occupied south. Under a campaign called “Crimean Switch Off,” six more electrical substations were hit, which brought the number of energy facilities struck between July 1 and July 8 to 50. Electricity use in Crimea is still restricted after the strikes, and the Crimean Wind monitoring channel reported a fire at a substation on the Kerch Peninsula.
The Russian side of the story
Yury Slyusar, governor of Russia’s Rostov region, said two tankers were damaged overnight in a drone attack on Taganrog Bay. Both were sailing empty, so nothing leaked, he said. One crew was taken off its ship, and the damage was still being assessed. Two people were hurt: one was treated on the spot, the other went to hospital, and both declined admission after an examination. Slyusar said the attack also reached 11 districts of the region, along with the cities of Novoshakhtinsk and Kamensk-Shakhtinsky.
The strikes are part of a 40-day operation that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy authorized and the Security Service of Ukraine leads. It targets defense facilities, logistics hubs and strategic energy sites.
Russia hits Kyiv again
Russia hit back overnight. The Air Force said Russian forces fired two Kh-31P anti-radar missiles from the Black Sea and five Iskander-M/S-400 ballistic missiles from Crimea and Russia’s Bryansk region. They also sent 169 strike drones of the Shahed, Gerbera and Italmaz types, plus Parodiya decoys. By 8 a.m., air defenses had shot down or suppressed 139 drones. Both Kh-31P missiles missed their targets.
Kyiv took ballistic missiles for the third time in a week, after attacks on July 2 and July 6. Explosions sounded before the siren did, and the alert went off three times. Fires broke out in the Desnyanskyi and Svyatoshynskyi districts. In Svyatoshynskyi, an administrative building and warehouses burned, a garage cooperative caught fire at another address, and trams were damaged. Two people were injured there, one of them hospitalized. In Desnyanskyi, a warehouse complex burned.
Sources
- Ukraine Strikes 9 Shadow Fleet Tankers Overnight, Bringing 72-Hour Total to 19
- Ukrainian drones strike 9 Russian tankers in over 72 hours
