Russian shadow fleet oil tanker catches fire off Sochi after naval drone attack

Drone strike off Sirius

On Tuesday evening, 6 October 2026, an oil tanker caught fire in the Black Sea off the coast of Sochi. Dense black smoke and flames rose from the vessel, visible across the shoreline of the resort city where Russian President Vladimir Putin maintains an official residence. No air raid sirens sounded in the city before the explosion occurred. Dmitri Plishkin, the head of the administration of the Sirius federal territory, confirmed the fire and announced the immediate closure of all local beaches while environmental services began continuous monitoring of air and water quality.

Plishkin issued safety instructions on social media during the evening.

I ask residents and guests of the federal territory to refrain from prolonged stays outdoors and, if possible, not to open windows in indoor spaces.

Crew evacuation and firefighting

Flames quickly spread across the surrounding sea surface as flammable crude leaked into the water. Russian Transport Minister Andrei Nikitin confirmed that the Liberian-flagged vessel was struck by uncrewed surface boats. The 23 Indian crew members on board were safely evacuated without injuries, according to the Russian Ministry of Transport. Authorities established a crisis operations group, stating that maritime firefighting operations would begin as soon as the intensity of the flames decreased and rescue tugs could approach the hull safely.

Sanctions and the shadow fleet

The vessel was identified by Russian media and shipping trackers as the Liberian-flagged Aframax Rio (also listed in Greek reports as Aframax Rea). MarineTraffic data recorded the crude carrier in the Black Sea near Nizhneimeretinskaya Bay by the Russia-Georgia border roughly 23 hours before the incident. According to the Russian Telegram channel Mash, the tanker was hauling crude oil from the port of Novorossiysk to India. Ukraine placed the tanker on its sanctions list on 12 February 2026, designating it as part of Russia's shadow fleet that transports crude in circumvention of international sanctions.

Widening strikes across the Black Sea

Sochi sits in Krasnodar Krai, approximately 650 to 700 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, and has experienced several attacks in recent months. Ukrainian naval drones previously struck the offshore support vessel Nefrit in Sochi port on 3 September 2026, followed by a fuel storage fire near the airport on 4 September 2026, which reignited on 7 September. Earlier, in April 2026, strikes hit oil infrastructure in nearby Tuapse. The incident off Sochi coincided with multiple strikes on commercial maritime traffic across the western Black Sea. On Monday, 5 October 2026, the Turkish-owned grain vessel Royad Mammadov sank off the coast of Romania following a drone attack, killing two crew members. Early on Tuesday, 6 October 2026, drones struck two more Turkish-owned ships roughly 70 nautical miles (about 120 kilometres) off the Bulgarian coast: the Togo-flagged Alfa Watan sank with its crew missing, while the Palau-flagged Able was hit.