Ukraine hits Russian 'shadow fleet' tanker in Mediterranean

LONDON, Dec 19 - Ukraine struck a Russian "shadow fleet" oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea with aerial drones for the first time, an official said on Friday, reflecting the growing intensity of Kyiv's attacks on Russian oil shipping.

The vessel - the Qendil - was empty when it was ‍struck by ​drones in neutral waters more than 2,000 kilometres (1,243 miles) from Ukraine, sustaining critical damage, the ‍official at the SBU security service said in a written statement.

The tanker's last visible position on Friday morning was given as off the coast of Crete sailing ​parallel to ​Libya's coast, MarineTraffic ship tracking data showed. The Ukrainian official, who declined to be named, did not say exactly where the tanker was located at the time of the attack and when it happened.

Ukraine has been attacking Russian oil refineries throughout 2025, but has visibly widened ‍its campaign in recent weeks, striking oil rigs in the Caspian Sea and claiming credit for sea-drone attacks on three tankers in the Black ​Sea.

Those tankers as well as the Oman-flagged Qendil are part ⁠of Russia's so-called "shadow fleet" - unregulated ships that Kyiv says are helping Moscow export large quantities of oil and fund its war in Ukraine despite Western sanctions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has threatened to sever Ukraine's access to the Black Sea in response to the attacks on tankers, which ​he has derided as piracy.

There was no fresh comment from Moscow on the latest attack.

The Qendil was en route to the Russian port of Ust Luga in the ‌Baltic Sea from the Indian port of Sikka, MarineTraffic data ​showed.

India is a major consumer of Russian oil, although it has faced pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to curb its purchases to reduce the oil revenue that Ukraine says is fuelling Russia's full-scale war.

MULTI-STAGE MEASURES

The strike on the Qendil is notable not only because it was further away in the Mediterranean but also because it used long-range aerial drones.

"This development reflects a stark expansion of Ukraine’s use of uncrewed aerial systems against maritime assets associated with Russia’s sanctioned oil export network," British maritime risk-management group Vanguard said.

The Ukrainian official did not say how the drones reached the ship, but said ‍the operation involved "multi-stage" measures.

Earlier this year, the SBU, the vast security agency behind the attack, smuggled dozens of drones into Russia for ​an operation to destroy strategic bombers at air bases deep inside Russia.

There have also been a string of other unexplained blasts on tankers that have called at Russian ​ports since December 2024. Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in them, but maritime ‌security sources suspect Kyiv is behind them.

Earlier this week, two crew members of the Valeriy Gorchakov Russian-flagged tanker were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on the southern Russian port of Rostov-on-Don. REUTERS