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Ukraine says strikes Russian ‘shadow fleet’ tanker in Mediterranean Sea

Saturday, 20 December 2025 8:17 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 20 December 2025 10:25 AM ]

Crude oil tanker Qendil transits the Bosphorus en route to the Mediterranean Sea, in Istanbul, Turkey, November 6, 2025. (File photo by Reuters)

Ukraine says it has targeted an oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea, claiming it belonged to the Russian shadow fleet.

The vessel, the Qendil, was empty when it was struck on Friday in neutral waters in the Mediterranean Sea with aerial drones for the first time, an official at the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in a written statement.

Marine tracking websites showed that the oil tanker was located 2,000 km from Ukraine off the coast of Libya when it was attacked.

The unnamed Ukrainian official did not specify exactly where the tanker was at the time of the attack or when it occurred.

However, overhead footage provided by the source showed a small explosion on the deck of a tanker. Reuters confirmed the vessel shown in the video was the Qendil by comparing it with file imagery, but could not verify the time or location.

An earlier statement by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service revealed that the British special services, in cooperation with NATO countries, had devised a scheme to cause an environmental disaster in the international waters for a massive raid on Russia’s “shadow fleet.”

US weighing sanctions on Russia’s ‘shadow tanker fleet’

The US is weighing sanctions on what it calls a “shadow fleet” of Russian oil tankers that it says have been helping Moscow bypass Washington’s economic bans.

In this regard, Alexander Stepanov, a senior researcher at the Institute of Latin America of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Russian media that the plan is to target the interests of both Russia and China, the main global rival of the United States, as well as other Russian allies.

“This will be related not only to the interests of the Russian Federation, it basically fits into the general pattern of the trade war targeting China and our allies, including the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the global South as a whole,” Stepanov told TASS.

In particular, he said, “the maritime logistics of Venezuela and Iran, which buttress the petroleum trade, are under attack. This method of paralyzing maritime logistics will be projected to all countries that are not part of the Western coalition.”

To accomplish this, the military expert added, NATO will make efforts to specifically create a negative media image of the Russian “shadow fleet,” creating imaginary environmental problems and conducting hidden sabotage with the aim of a focal spill of petroleum products.

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