Ukraine says it has carried out its first drone strike on a Russian “shadow fleet” tanker in the Mediterranean Sea, hitting the vessel off the coast of Libya more than 1,250 miles (2,000km) from Ukrainian territory. The attack reportedly caused critical damage and marked a major expansion of Kyiv’s maritime campaign.

Ukrainian officials said the tanker, Qendil, was being used to evade sanctions and fund Russia’s war effort, making it a legitimate military target. The ship was reportedly empty at the time, posing no environmental risk. The strike comes amid growing international efforts to counter Russia’s shadow fleet, a network of vessels used to bypass Western sanctions. Peter Beaumont reports in The Guardian:

Ukraine says it has attacked a Russian “shadow fleet” tanker with aerial drones 1,250 miles (2,000km) from its borders, in the first such strike in the Mediterranean Sea since Moscow’s full-scale invasion nearly four years ago.

Friday’s strike off the coast of Libya, which reportedly caused critical damage, took place on the day of Vladimir Putin’s annual end of year press conference.

It came amid an escalating maritime conflict over the shadow fleet, a term used to describe vessels used by Russia, Iran and Venezuela to evade sanctions with deceptive practices. […]

They claimed the tanker, identified as the Qendil, had “sustained critical damage and cannot be used for its intended purpose”. The tanker was being used to circumvent western sanctions and fund Russia’s war chest, they claimed, making it “an absolutely legitimate target”

“The enemy must understand that Ukraine will not stop, and will strike them anywhere in the world, wherever they may be,” the source added. […]

This month, US forces boarded a sanctioned shadow tanker off Venezuela, and the Trump administration has announced a blockade of other shadow tankers in the country as part of Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to force regime change.

European countries have also boosted efforts against shadow tankers operating in their waters amid mounting concern over the security and environmental threat posed by the ageing vessels, which often travel without automatic identification systems to avoid being tracked.

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