Ukraine attacks Russian 'shadow' tanker off Libyan coast

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: The Guardian

Ukraine says it has attacked a Russian “shadow fleet” tanker with aerial drones 1,250 miles (2,000km) from its borders, in the first such strike in the Mediterranean Sea since Moscow’s full-scale invasion nearly four years ago.

Friday’s strike off the coast of Libya, which reportedly caused critical damage, took place on the day of Vladimir Putin’s annual end of year press conference in which he said Russia would respond to recent Ukrainian attacks on shadow fleet tankers.

It came amid an escalating maritime conflict over the shadow fleet, a term used to describe vessels used by Russia, Iran and Venezuela to evade sanctions with deceptive practices.

Kyiv has previously targeted Russian shadow tankers in the Black Sea as it has sought to interdict an important source of revenue that is being used to finance Moscow’s illegal invasion.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/19/ukraine-attacks-russian-shadow-tanker-off-libyan-coast

[ck4829]

1. K&R

[AllaN01Bear]

2. ding this .

privaterrs eh?

[Bayard]

3. Good news from Ukraine!

And now we know why trump had to give that crazed speech the other night,
" Vladimir Putin’s annual end of year press conference." Donnie has to keep up.

[OnlinePoker]

4. UK Sun so take with a grain of salt, but a Russian general was killed on the tanker

VLADIMIR Putin has vowed to seek revenge on those behind the killing of one of his top generals after a deadly Ukrainian drone strike in the Mediterranean.

In a chilling Moscow end of year address, the Kremlin boss declared that “Russia is certainly going to respond”.

This comes after unconfirmed Ukrainian reports suggest several senior Russian officials were killed in a strike on Russia’s shadow fleet, including a GRU general accused of orchestrating the Salisbury poisoning.

The general in question is Andrey Averyanov, a senior figure in Russia’s GRU military intelligence service and has long been linked by Western investigators to some of Moscow’s most notorious covert operations abroad.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/37686570/russian-tanker-blitzed-med-ukrainian-forces-op/

[quakerboy]

5. why havnt we done this?

We can go after venezualan "shadow" vessels, but not russian ones?