With Attacks on Oil Tankers, Ukraine Takes Aim at Russia’s War Financing

Strikes on four vessels signal that Kyiv is willing to expand the maritime theater of the conflict in an effort to crimp Moscow’s military funding.Satellite-controlled speedboat drones designed and operated by Ukraine’s military intelligence service. Called Sea Babies, they are packed with explosives and can travel long distances.Credit...Brendan Hoffman for The New York TimesDec. 20, 2025, 5:06 a.m. ETUkraine has used drones four times in the past few weeks to hit oil tankers from Russia’s shadow fleet, escalating the war in the seas and showing that Ukraine’s security services agency feels increasingly emboldened to launch audacious attacks and claim them publicly.One ship was struck by aerial drones on Thursday night in the Mediterranean Sea, more than 1,200 miles away from Ukraine. The other three were hit by sea drones in the Black Sea. The attacks are the first on Russia’s sanction-defying oil tankers that Ukraine has acknowledged since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.The security agency also said it had attacked Russian oil production platforms in the Caspian Sea four times in the past 10 days, including on Thursday.The oil business fuels Russia’s economy and its war, and throughout the conflict, the West has tried to crack down on its profits with sanctions.“No money, no war machine,” said Benjamin Jensen of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington.To evade those sanctions, Russia has developed its so-called shadow fleet, a clandestine network of hundreds of dilapidated oil and gas tankers with hard-to-trace owners that covertly shuttle fuel to countries like India and China. Ukraine believes that if it can disrupt this business through attacks on the shadow fleet, as well as on oil refineries, it may gain leverage in peace talks now being pushed by President Trump by appearing to be on the attack against Russia.In addition, Ukraine hopes to force Russia to the negotiating table by cutting its oil profits.So far, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has given no indication that he is interested in ending the war. He says he is winning, and on Friday, he said Kyiv’s attacks on the shadow fleet would not have any effect. He also threatened retaliation. “We will definitely respond,” he said during his end-of-year news conference.The recent attacks are part of a new front in the conflict. For years, the Biden administration had warned Ukraine against hitting Russia’s oil industry because of fears of driving up global prices and escalating the war. Ukraine’s public claims suggest that Mr. Trump might have known about them, as Ukraine would not risk angering Mr. Trump at this stage of negotiations.The White House did not respond to a request for comment.ImageOdesa, Ukraine, on Wednesday during a power cut. Russia has been pounding the port city for almost a week.Credit...Laetitia Vancon for The New York TimesAll four tankers disabled by Ukraine’s security services were empty. The security agency, known as the S.B.U., said the three vessels in the Black Sea were on their way to fill up with oil in Novorossiysk, the busiest port in Russia, on the sea’s northeastern coast.The attack on Thursday night in the Mediterranean Sea, on a tanker identified as the Qendil, was the most surprising, as the vessel was so far from Ukraine. Officials did not say where the aerial drones were launched from.Experts said the attacks were a signal to Russia that Ukraine was willing to escalate the war, and a message to Europe to enforce sanctions or face more problems in shipping lanes.Ukraine “will pursue a decisive policy,” said Andrii Klymenko, who runs a group monitoring the shadow fleet for the Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies, a Ukrainian think tank. He added, “That is, we will hit everyone who goes to Novorossiysk or to other Russian ports for oil — before they get the oil.”ImageA satellite image from November of damaged oil terminals and other facilities at the port of Novorossiysk, a Russian city on the Black Sea, after a Ukrainian missile and drone attack.Credit...Vantor, via ReutersThe attacks have caused insurance rates to skyrocket for any legitimate tanker in the region. They have also raised fears in countries like Turkey about the war expanding into nearby waters, and prompted concerns about possible environmental damage. The New York Times would like to hear from readers who want to share messages and materials with our journalists.Russia developed its shadow fleet with old tankers sailing under the flags of other countries, similar to fleets that Venezuela and Iran operate. The ships have disrupted their tracking systems or turned them off. They operate with sketchy insurance, or none at all.Tankers in the shadow fleet are now sometimes escorted by warships, a signal that “Russia is ready to face the West head on,” said Andrei Soldatov, a Russian journalist who reports on the work of Moscow’s intelligence organizations and who was an author of an article for Foreign Affairs on the shadow fleet. “It’s really, really new and very dangerous, what is going on,” he added.Ukrainian intelligence shows that Russia launched drones into Europe from its shadow fleet tankers, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in September. Mr. Putin denied this.Shadow vessels make up about 10 to 20 percent of the global tanker fleet, experts say. But estimates vary. There were 940 vessels this year, an increase of 45 percent from last year, according to S & P Global Market Intelligence, a research firm. The Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies has identified about 2,100 tankers that carry Russian oil, Mr. Klymenko said.