Ukrainian Security Service Claims Responsibility for Drone Attack on Two Russian Shadow Fleet Tankers in Black Sea

On the night of November 28, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) and the Ukrainian Navy conducted a joint operation that destroyed two Russian “shadow fleet” oil tankers in the Black Sea.

The targets were the sanctioned, Gambian-flagged KAIRO and the VIRAT, both empty and heading to the Russian port of Novorossiysk to load crude oil. According to an SBU source, the attack was carried out by Sea Baby naval drones operated by the SBU’s 13th Main Directorate of Military Counterintelligence.

The KAIRO caught fire and exploded approximately 28 nautical miles off Turkey’s Kocaeli Province, followed minutes later by a similar detonation aboard the VIRAT, 35 nautical miles offshore. Turkish rescue teams evacuated all 45 crew members (25 from the KAIRO and 20 from the VIRAT) with no reported injuries.

Turkish authorities have described both incidents as deliberate “external interference,” noting that the damage was consistent with drone strikes rather than mines or missiles.