Russian, Dec 03 : President Vladimir Putin has warned that Moscow may “cut Ukraine off from the sea” following Kyiv’s underwater drone strike on two tankers belonging to Russia’s so called “shadow fleet” in the Black Sea last week.
“The most radical way to stop these actions would be to cut Ukraine off from the sea,” Putin said, according to Russia’s state news agency TASS. He described the Ukrainian attacks as acts of “piracy” and indicated that Russia could take “retaliatory measures” against ships belonging to countries that support Ukraine.
Putin claimed the strikes carried out in the special economic zone of another state fit the definition of piracy.
“Ukrainian attacks on tankers in the Black Sea are piracy,” he said. “Attacks on tankers not even in neutral waters, but in the special economic zone of a third state, are piracy.”
The warning comes after Ukrainian Sea Baby maritime drones struck two Russian tankers on Friday and Saturday in a coordinated operation by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) and its navy. According to a Ukrainian security source, both tankers suffered severe damage and were effectively knocked out of operation, dealing “a significant blow” to Russia’s oil transportation network.
Russia relies heavily on a vast fleet of tankers many sailing under foreign flags of convenience—to ship oil despite Western sanctions. One of the targeted vessels, the Gambian-flagged tanker Virat, was hit twice within 24 hours, Turkey’s Transport Ministry said. Although its crew did not request evacuation, a firefighting tugboat was dispatched to assist.
A second explosion damaged another sanctioned tanker, the Kairos, also flagged to Gambia, in a nearby part of the Black Sea on Friday. All 25 crew members were evacuated. Neither vessel was inside Turkish territorial waters during the attacks.
Both tankers had previously been sanctioned by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.