Ukraine strikes Russian ships near Crimea, escalating attacks on fuel supplies

BBC:

Ukraine’s military has intensified its attacks near Russian-annexed Crimea, following up strikes on Russia’s land corridor to the peninsula by targeting maritime supply routes as well.

Ukraine’s drone force commander Robert Brovdi, also known as Magyar, says at least 25 ships have been hit and set on fire over the past four days in the Sea of Azov, the inland sea linked to the Black Sea by the Kerch Strait.

Such losses in so short a time are a clear blow to Russia’s naval capability as well as Vladimir Putin’s guarantee of maintaining fuel supplies.

These attacks appear to be the latest phase of Ukraine’s self-declared “logistics lockdown” which aims to choke off supplies and routes into and out of occupied Crimea.

Ukraine’s military talks of 36 ships hit and that most belong to Russia’s “shadow fleet” of commercial oil tankers. The exact number is unclear as some ships may have been hit more than once and not all the strikes have been confirmed independently.

The sight of tankers loitering in the Sea of Azov off the north-eastern coast of occupied Crimea is common, as there is an onshore oil loading facility at Kerch port on the peninsula itself.

Kerch port was attacked by Ukraine last month and BBC Verify’s analysis of satellite imagery shows the number of tankers in this area reduced in the days that followed.

Night-time footage of the latest strikes began appearing on social media early on Tuesday, and Brovdi detailed strikes every day between 6 and 9 July.

The governor of Russia’s Rostov region, Yuri Slyusar, said two empty tankers were attacked on Wednesday in Taganrog Bay in the north-east corner of the Sea of Azov, although they were still burning on Thursday.

Brovdi says two tankers attacked earlier in the week were each carrying about 7,000 tons of fuel from the Taganrog area to Crimea.

One satellite image captured on Wednesday shows a large plume of smoke rising from one ship around 2.5 miles (4.2 km) off the Crimean coast.