At least two Greek-owned vessels anchored near the Novorossiysk Port were hit by drone strikes on Tuesday, causing minor damage.
According to reports, the vessels struck by the drones include the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Delta Harmony (IMO: 9408463) as well as the Portuguese-flagged Matilda (IMO: 9402043), a general cargo ship.
The two vessels were attacked while loading Russian crude oil at the Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka terminal—operated by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC)—near Russia's Novorossiysk Port, which has been a frequent target for Ukrainian strikes in the past. However, Kazakhstan has claimed that the vessels were being loaded with its oil.
The CPC is a 1,500-kilometre-long shipper-owned oil pipeline carrying Caspian oil to a terminal near the Novorossiysk Port for global export.
Kyiv has not yet claimed responsibility for the Tuesday strikes.
Notably, unlike previous cases, the Delta Harmony and the Matilda are not sanctioned 'dark fleet' tankers, but are owned by reputed Greek companies, as per a Maritime Executive report.
Reports say that a few other vessels were also affected, such as the crude oil tankers Freud (IMO: 9804461) and the Delta Supreme (IMO: 9585895), but THE WEEK could not independently verify this information.
How badly were the vessels damaged?
According to a Reuters report, the Matilda had been in ballast (not carrying any cargo) about 30 miles away from the CPC terminal, when it was struck by two drones. It suffered minor damage to some parts of the deck, which is said to be fully repairable.
The report added that the Delta Harmony had also been in ballast when it was struck, which led to a small fire onboard that was extinguished quickly.
A response to Russia's 'civilian' vessel strike?
The Tuesday drone strikes come after Russian forces on Friday struck two cargo ships, killing at least one crew member and injuring others.
According to Ukrainian Deputy PM Oleksii Kuleba, the two attacked vessels were "civilian" ones, and were attacked at two different ports within the country's maritime export corridor, causing a lot of damage.
This comes amid Kyiv's allegations of Moscow committing "acts of terror" on civilian shipping in and out of Ukraine.
