“Dual Attack” On Russian War Machinery; After U.S. Sanctions, Ukraine Tries Choking Putin’s Oil Money

By
Sakshi Tiwari
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As the Russia-Ukraine war nears its fourth year mark, Ukraine has intensified attacks on Russia’s “shadow fleet,” a network of aging, often anonymously owned oil tankers used to evade Western sanctions.

On December 19, 2025, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) conducted its first-ever strike on a shadow fleet vessel in the Mediterranean Sea, targeting the Oman-flagged crude oil tanker Qendil with aerial drones. The incident took place in neutral waters close to the coast of Libya, more than 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) from Ukraine.

The ship, which was empty at the time, sustained severe damage, rendering it unusable, but there was no environmental risk of spills.

The sources in the Special Service of Ukraine (SBU) told the media that it was an “unprecedented special operation” with multi-stage planning. They highlighted the legitimacy of such goals for evading sanctions.

The SBU did not publish specific details of the attack, including where the aerial drone was launched from. However, it stated that “The enemy must understand that Ukraine will not stop, and will strike them anywhere in the world, wherever they may be.”

Notably, the attack came amid growing maritime disputes over the “shadow fleet.” The strike took place off the coast of Libya and had impeccable timing: it was conducted on the same day as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual end-of-year press conference in which he pledged to take revenge on Ukraine for recent attacks on shadow fleet tankers.

Throughout 2024 and 2025, Ukraine has been attacking Russian oil refineries. However, in recent weeks, the campaign has clearly expanded, with at least three strikes on three ships in the Black Sea using sea drones.

Before this, in November 2025,  Ukrainian Sea Baby naval drones struck two tankers, the Kairos and Virat (both Gambia-flagged and sanctioned) in the Black Sea, near Turkey. Virat was hit twice. At the time, reports suggested that both vessels were empty and were en route to load oil at Novorossiysk port. Both vessels sustained critical damage.

The next big attack came on December 10, 2025, when Sea Baby drones from Ukraine’s state security service (SBU) attacked the Serbian-flagged crude oil tanker Dashan in the Black Sea. Video of that attack showed the drones approaching the ship, which eventually erupted in flames.

This attack took place when the tank was passing through Ukraine’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea to the Russian port of Novorossiysk. It was described as the third attack on a Russian shadow tanker and caused critical damage, as per Ukrainian officials.

Following this, Russia retaliated with a Shahed kamikaze drone strike on a ship in the port of Chornomorsk. The ship that was attacked was a Turkish-owned CENK-T roll-on, roll-off cargo ship. The ship was reportedly bringing in a shipment of generators.

The strike triggered fears that a coordinated Russian campaign against vessels would make maritime corporations reconsider bringing vessels into this region, having the same impact as the Houthis’ strikes did in the Red Sea.

The Russian attack was potentially aimed at deterring Ukraine from launching attacks on its shadow tankers. However, it clearly failed to deter Kyiv, as evidenced by the latest Mediterranean attack.

Interestingly, President Vladimir Putin stated on December 19 that Russia will “definitely respond” to Ukraine’s attacks on its shadow fleet.

“Ultimately, this will not lead to the expected result,” he said. “It will not disrupt any supplies, but will only create additional threats,” he said, without directly mentioning the latest attack.

Ukraine has made no bones about the fact that these strikes on the shadow tanker fleet aim to disrupt Russia’s oil logistics, reduce export capacity, and cut revenues funding the war.

Ukrainian officials explicitly state the goal is to “reduce oil dollar revenues to the Russian budget” and target vessels circumventing sanctions.

How the US Waged War Against Russian Oil 

Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United States, often in coordination with the European Union, the G-7, and other close allies like Australia, has implemented several measures to reduce Russia’s oil revenues by actively depressing the effective price Moscow receives for its exports.

In December 2022, for instance, the US managed to set a $60/barrel cap on Russian seaborne crude oil, which was later extended to petroleum products. Following this, American allies prohibited their firms from providing maritime services, like shipping, insurance, finance, or brokering, unless the oil was purchased at or below the cap.

However, the move failed to achieve its intended impact beyond initial discomfort because it forced Russia to offer steep discounts to buyers in Asia.

In fact, two of the biggest Asian economies and close confidantes of Russia—India and China—swiftly overtook the EU as Russia’s top oil users.

A record 109 million tonnes of Russian crude was purchased by China last year, accounting for nearly 20% of all energy imports. Meanwhile, India imported 88 million tonnes of Russian oil.

Russian oil
Ships carrying Russian oil / Twitter

Despite being sanctioned and subject to a price cap, Russia has managed to keep its oil export channels running, even if it could not get the biggest bang for its buck.

Notably, the cornerstone of evasion of restrictions on its oil imports is Russia’s “shadow fleet”—a network of hundreds of aging, anonymously owned tankers operating outside Western oversight. Russia is currently estimated to have about 1,000 such vessels, many of them over 15 years old, poorly maintained, and flagged in non-coalition countries.

These tankers transport oil without relying on G7/EU/Australia services, allowing sales above the price cap. 

This arrangement has been working due to opaque ownership via shell companies and the use of non-Western insurance. Additionally, Russia facilitates ship-to-ship (STS) transfers in international waters to obscure origins and actively engages in spoofing AIS (Automatic Identification System) and signal manipulation.

In January 2025, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated an unprecedented 183 vessels, mostly oil tankers in the shadow fleet, along with two major Russian oil producers, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas.

Additionally, dozens of opaque oil traders, oilfield service providers, Russian energy executives, and two Russia-based maritime insurers (Ingosstrakh and Alfastrakhovanie) provide non-Western coverage were also targeted.

Things further took a dramatic turn in October 2025 when the US sanctioned Russia’s two largest producers, Rosneft and Lukoil.

These sanctions came as Trump grew frustrated over stalled negotiations for a truce in Ukraine. “Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war,” said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, emphasising that the sanctions were necessary. He referred to the two companies as the Kremlin’s “war machines.”

The move helped freeze the assets of the two companies, block transactions between them and other contractors, and threaten secondary sanctions on buyers and banks, and caused immediate price drops.

In addition, the US President Donald Trump has also used immense diplomatic pressure to wean India and China off dependence on Russian oil imports.

Despite these attacks on companies that apparently “oil” the Russian machine, Putin has refused to end the war. On the contrary, Moscow has intensified attacks on Ukraine amid emerging evidence that the United States wants to end the war as soon as possible, even if that means coercing Ukraine to give up the occupied territory.

Notably, Russian Urals crude prices, Russia’s flagship export grade, registered historic lows in December 2025, falling to about $34–49 per barrel. This fall has been attributed to tighter sanctions on shadow-fleet vessels, owners, and companies such as Rosneft and Lukoil.

 

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