Ukraine’s drone blitz hits 90 Russian vessels in Sea of Azov, forcing suspension of navigation

A week of relentless strikes

Ukrainian drones first struck two river tankers on July 6 that were delivering gasoline to Crimea. Each vessel had a cargo capacity of roughly 7,000 tonnes. By Saturday night the intensity had mushroomed: ten more tankers and four ferries were hit, Ukraine’s General Staff announced on Sunday, bringing the cumulative damage tally for the week to 90 vessels. The affected ships span tankers, tugs, ferries and dry cargo carriers, all part of what Kyiv describes as Russia’s “ghost fleet” that illegally ships sanctioned petroleum products worldwide.

The technological humiliation of the Russian empire continues. It will fall because of Crimea.

Supply lines under pressure

The strikes are part of a broader campaign designed to choke Russian logistics and force Moscow to the negotiating table. Earlier on Sunday a refinery in Samara, located on the Volga River 800 kilometres from the front line, was engulfed in flames after a drone hit, witnesses said. That attack, along with repeated hits on substations across illegally annexed Crimea, has heightened Moscow’s anxiety over fuel availability. The systematic targeting of tankers and refineries has already compelled the Kremlin to cap civilian fuel consumption and purchase refined products abroad, according to Ukrainian military statements on Saturday.

Russia retaliates with strikes on Odesa ports

Moscow responded with a second day of long-range strikes on Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. The Russian Defence Ministry reported that its forces used high-precision air-launched weapons and drones overnight to hit Odesa and Chornomorsk. The ministry said the raids damaged port infrastructure used for unloading and storing military materiel, fuel and lubricants, and targeted vessels that carry such cargo to Ukrainian ports. It named the Odtrans logistics centre at Odesa and a transshipment hub with fuel depots at Chornomorsk as specific targets.

Navigation halted, ghost fleet shrinking

Faced with the drone blitz, Russia suspended navigation through the Don-Azov channel, which connects the Don River to the Sea of Azov, Russian media reported on Saturday. Robert Brovdi, the chief of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, said traffic over the Kerch Strait, the narrow passage between Crimea and mainland Russia, also appeared to have stopped. He published thermal camera videos from the drones showing operators steering the aircraft into the tankers’ bridges, with the feed cutting at the moment of impact while secondary drones captured multiple explosions on a single ship. “The ghost fleet is visibly shrinking,” Brovdi wrote on social media, adding that it can no longer use the Kerch Strait to move sanctioned petroleum products. The 90 vessels damaged in the week include tankers, tugs, ferries and dry cargo ships, according to Brovdi’s tally.