Ukraine's Friday drone attack on a Russian shadow fleet ship in the Mediterranean Sea shows that these vessels can be attacked anywhere along their route; This may make their shipowners rethink cooperation with Russia, wrote the Telegraph daily.
On Friday, the Ukrainian military carried out an attack using drones on a Russian shadow fleet tanker sailing off the coast of Libya. This means that the army has expanded its operations from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Units subject to Western sanctions may therefore be attacked anywhere along the route, the newspaper emphasized in an article published on its website on Friday evening.
As Matthew Wright from the Kpler intelligence company noted, Ukrainian troops have significantly expanded the area of their operations. “For a shadow fleet ship, the risk of attack is now everywhere“- he emphasized.
A possible attack on a ship transporting a cargo of crude oil could result in an ecological disaster and billions of dollars in damage. However, Michelle Bockmann from Windward, a company that analyzes data on the maritime sector, emphasized that “Ukraine is aware of this risk” and will most likely focus on tankers sailing without cargo.
“Marine insurance companies have been saying for a long time that if an accident occurs on one of these ships, especially if it is sailing through the English Channel, it will mean a maritime disaster with damages running into billions of dollars,” Bockmann said.
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Experts say the increasingly frequent attacks may make some shipowners wonder whether the benefits of working for Vladimir Putin's Russia are worth the risk. The attacks could also raise insurance premiums for ship owners.
As “Telegraph” recalled, the Russian shadow fleet includes nearly 1,000 tankers, which often fly under the flags of countries other than Russia. Probably about 600 of the vessels carry only Russian oil, with the rest carrying crude oil and other cargo. The raw material goes to customers in India and China.
“Over the past month, Ukraine has carried out drone attacks on three tankers in the Black Sea and is suspected of being behind (another) explosion off the coast of Senegal,” we read in the Telegraph.
