When Ukrainian sea drones attacked two shadow tankers within sight of Russia’s main Black Sea naval base, Novorossiysk, the Russian warships inside stayed safely tied up at their piers.

May 4, 2026

Ukrainian sea drones on Sunday attacked and damaged a pair of Russian shadow fleet tankers near the entrance to the port of Novorossiysk, the naval base the once-mighty Black Sea Fleet retreated to after being forced to abandon its pre-war base in Crimea earlier in the war.

The embarrassing snub to Russian naval power occurred in the early morning hours, within sight of land. A pair of remotely controlled Magura robot kamikaze boats, operated by Ukrainian special operators, blew up against the tankers’ sterns, thermal footage published by Ukraine’s General Staff showed.

Both vessels were sanctioned illegal transporters of Russian oil and were set afire and “put out of service,” a joint statement by the Ukrainian Navy and national intelligence service (the SBU) said.

The 30-second video published by the SBU showed the drones chasing down the tankers in smooth to slightly choppy seas. No defensive fire is visible. Head of Ukraine’s General Staff, General Andriy Hnatov, personally oversaw the attack culminating weeks of preparatory operations, the statement said.

“These tankers were actively used to transport oil. Now they won’t, “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Sunday evening statement. “Ukraine’s long-range strike capacity will increase in all spectra: on the sea, in the air and on land.”Major Ukrainian media confirmed the strikes took place. Russian national and Krasnodar region platforms did not mention the attack; however, the independent Astra news agency and Russian milbloggers confirmed it took place as reported by official Ukrainian sources.

The former Russian FSB secret service agents Mikhail Polyakov and Igor Rusakov on the popular Dva Mayora Telegram channel (1.6 million followers) on Sunday said: “The tanker wasn’t military, it was just under sanctions, which they themselves are illegal. Once again, Zelensky has taken responsibility for organizing a terrorist act against a peaceful target.”

Ukrainian military journalist Yury Butusov, in a Sunday report on the strikes, said the attacks “are the best proof that Ukrainian sanctions [attacking Russian economic assets militarily] are the most effective sanctions.”

The identity of the two sanctioned tankers had not been made public by midday on Monday. Kyiv Post researchers using open-source maritime tracking platforms found four tankers in the vicinity of Novorossiysk port known to be sanctioned: the LOGANO (Flag Cameroon), the LLEVANT (Panama), the Waler (Panama) and the Orion A (Cameroon).

The LLEVANT (owned by Grace Energy Shipping DMCC in the UAE) appeared possibly to be stationary about 5-6 kilometers (3.1-3.7 miles) from Novorossiysk port. Its open-source listing showed it without a destination, possibly swinging at anchor, and with its most recent GPS fix registered at approximately 6 a.m. on Monday.

The LOGANO (Owner/Manager – Logano Maritime Services & Trading Inc., Saint Kitts and Nevis) appeared to be underway at 7.6 knots towards the listed destination Samsun, Turkey.

GPS location pinpointing showed the tanker WALER (Synergy Shipping Ltd, Marshall Islands c/o Inzur Gemi Isletmesi Ltd Sti, Turkey) and the ORION A (Faleola Nexus Ltd, Samoa) to be positioned about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) inland in Russia’s Krasnodar region on dry land, a possible indicator of GPS spoofing, per tracking data reviewed by Kyiv Post on the platform maritimetraffic.com.

Ukraine’s Sunday kamikaze robot boat attack within eyesight of Novorossiysk port came in the wake of a punishing air strikes hitting Russia’s naval base Sevastopol in Crimea on April 18 and 29. In those attacks, Ukrainian long-range drones struck and damaged at least three Russian amphibious assault warships (the assault ship Yamal was hit twice) along with the naval reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs.

Per video published by Ukraine’s drone forces command, the SBS, Ukrainian unmanned aircraft in parallel raids across Crimea destroyed a Russian MiG-31 interceptor jet on the ground, put an MR-10M1 air watch radar out of action, and hit and damaged a Russian army training center, naval stores warehouses, and fleet fueling facilities.

Ukrainian drones flying over and past Russia-defended air space in Crimea during April have at the same time pounded Russia’s mainland Krasnodar region, hitting the Kremlin’s largest Black Sea oil refinery, in the city of Tuapse, four times in that month alone. The long-range drone raids set the facility afire and halted production for two weeks. The massive blaze, oil slicks killing wildlife, and smoke saturated with black tar soiling buildings and automobiles have been all but ignored by Russian state media, but widely and critically discussed – usually in terms of the Russian state’s seeming inability to defend Russian air and sea space – in social media.

Three days before the two tankers were hit off Novorossiysk, on April 29, a pair of Ukrainian Magura sea drones targeted and hit the reported shadow tanker Marquise, in open Black Sea waters some 210 kilometers (130 miles) southeast of Tuapse. The tanker was hit in the stern near the engine and propellers, and at the time reported disabled and drifting. On Monday, open source trackers showed the vessel stationary near the Turkish port of Samsun with the listed status “not under command,” a term sometimes used to describe a ship unable to sail under her own power.

Russian navy fleet units also saw action against an unspecified number of Ukrainian sea drones that night in the Kerch Strait, with Ukrainian Navy Magura V5 entering the strait from the south and attacking the Russian fast patrol boat Sobol operated by Russia’s national spy agency, the FSB, and the anti-sea drone boat Granachok, operated by the Russian Navy. Both Russian vessels were performing security/patrol duties protecting the Kerch Bridge, a critical road/rail transportation link connecting Russia’s Krasnodar region with Ukraine’s Russia-occupied Crimea region.

Both were hit and damaged in the engagement. At least one Russian service member was killed, and several more were wounded, with some personnel reported missing, a Black Sea Fleet statement said. Ukrainian Navy video published later that day showed high-speed Magura approaches and successful impacts, at times notwithstanding Russian defensive fire.

Ukraine’s military drone command on May 2 reported that in April its aircraft had, as part of a now four-month-old bombardment campaign systematically targeting Russian air defense systems, destroyed at least 25 major weapons or air defense radars in southwest Russia or in occupied Crimea. According to that agency, the most destructive night of strikes was April 15-16, during which Ukrainian drones destroyed a Russian long-range air watch radar, firing and fire control elements of an S-400 interceptor missile system, at least three medium-range air defense systems, and at least three medium-range air watch radars. Ukraine’s military published video documenting the kill claims, but Kyiv Post was only able to verify some of them via other media.

Since invading Ukraine a second time in February 2022, Russia and its navy have lost about half of the warship tonnage and one-third of all the warships in its Black Sea Fleet (BSF), which evacuated its traditional home port, Sevastopol, in October 2023, and now rarely sends warships into open waters from its current base, Novorossiysk. The attack hitting the two tankers on Sunday took place less than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from piers where the BSF fighting elements were tied up, and from which they did not move during the Ukrainian strike.

Ukraine appeared on Sunday to expand the scope of its campaign targeting Russian naval capacity with a first-ever attack on a Russian warship in the Baltic Sea, with Ukrainian long-range drones hitting and damaging a Karakurt missile corvette tied up in the naval port of Primorsk. Ukrainian officials claimed the vessel was disabled. A tanker thought to be part of Russia’s shadow fleet and energy infrastructure were also hit in the northern attack.

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/75387