The War Moves From Ukraine to the High Seas

"On a warm night in August 2023, Oleksandr Kubrakov, then a senior minister in Ukraine's wartime government, had just settled into a sleeper car on the eastbound train from Lviv to Kyiv when he got a call from the country's main intelligence agency, the SBU. Its agents had deployed a set of naval drones in the Black Sea, and they had come upon an interesting target: a massive oil tanker near the Russian port of Novorossiysk. They asked for permission to sink it."

"The drones pulled back to continue hunting for Russian warships. For more than two years, Ukrainian forces stuck to that principle. They treated Russian naval vessels as fair game, damaging or destroying dozens of them, including one Russian tanker used to supply the military. But they spared civilian boats, even those carrying Russian oil from Russian ports to finance the Russian war on Ukraine."

"Only in the past two weeks has Ukraine set aside those rules of engagement. Amid the latest U.S. push to end the war through diplomacy, explosions hit four oil tankers in six days. The targets were part of the so-called shadow fleet, which Russia uses to transport crude, in violation of Western sanctions. Two of the attacks took place near Ukrainian shores in the Black Sea, and another two struck farther away: one near the northern coast of Turkey"

Naval drones deployed by Ukraine's intelligence service located a massive oil tanker near Novorossiysk in August 2023, prompting a denied request to sink a non-Russian-flagged civilian vessel. For over two years Ukrainian forces targeted Russian naval vessels and damaged or destroyed dozens, including a tanker supplying the military, while deliberately avoiding civilian ships transporting Russian oil. In recent weeks Ukraine has relaxed those restraints, and explosions struck four oil tankers in six days. The damaged vessels belonged to the shadow fleet used to move crude in violation of Western sanctions, and the SBU claimed responsibility for two attacks.

Read at The Atlantic