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Ukraine has hit an empty oil tanker of Russia’s shadow fleet in the Mediterranean in the first such drone attack in this sea in another escalation of the Ukrainian strikes on Russian vessels.
The Qendil tanker, flying the flag of Oman, was targeted and hit by drones, Ukraine said on Friday.
The vessel was empty, and its blow-up does not pose an environmental threat, sources with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.
Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on empty vessels of the Russian shadow fleet in recent weeks.
As a result of this, oil tankers carrying Russian oil appear to be avoiding the fastest Black Sea route to the Turkish straits and travel along the Georgian and Turkish coasts to avoid drone attacks from Ukraine, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.
At least two tankers that have loaded oil from Novorossiysk, the Russian port on the Black Sea, have recently traveled along the Georgian and Turkish coasts instead of taking the shortest route to the Bosphorus Strait, according to the data compiled by Bloomberg.
The detour along the Georgian and Turkish coasts would add about 350 miles, or 70%, to the journey of an oil tanker from the port of Novorossiysk to the Turkish straits.
Crude oil exports from the Russian terminals on the Black Sea were much lower in November than originally planned as bad weather and Ukrainian attacks on infrastructure have delayed loadings and departures.
Ukrainian attacks have also crippled Russia’s fuel exports from the Black Sea ports in recent weeks.
Ukrainian forces have increasingly targeted Russian oil-refining, storage, and export infrastructure using drones and missiles. The campaign has gained intensity in recent months, with the Center for European Policy Analysis noting a shift in strategy “from smaller-scale strikes on storage tanks to targeting hard-to-replace refinery equipment, like cracking units, much of it western-made and subject to sanctions.”
