Russia suspended maritime shipping in the vital Sea of Azov corridor after Ukrainian drone forces targeted 90 vessels, including shadow fleet oil tankers, in less than a week, as reported by The Guardian.
The intensive aerial campaign halted traffic through the Don-Azov canal on Friday, effectively shutting down a crucial economic and military export route that connects Russian river networks to the Black Sea and international markets.
Drone Campaign Targets Infrastructure
Ukraine’s drone forces chief, Robert Brovdi, stated on Sunday that his units had struck 10 tankers, four ferries, and a major oil refinery in Syzran overnight, alongside multiple strikes on Crimean electricity sub-stations.
"The technological humiliation of the [Russian] empire continues. It will fall because of Crimea," wrote Brovdi.
He further noted that Moscow's shadow fleet, used to transport sanctioned oil products globally, was diminishing and could no longer access the strategic Kerch strait.
Former Ukrainian Defence Minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk stated that the Kremlin has lost control over this critical maritime corridor, impacting military vessels and ships transporting grain out of occupied ports like Berdyansk and Mariupol.
"The Caspian Sea doesn’t have any connection to the world’s oceans. It has turned into a lake.
All of its products – agricultural, fertiliser, whatever – go through this channel and river," said Zagorodnyuk.
He predicted further strikes near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, noting that Russia's small Caspian flotilla remains effectively trapped by the canal closure.
Yevgeniya Gaber, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council thinktank, explained that the maritime disruptions align with a broader military framework to progressively isolate the Crimean peninsula.
"There is not a single oil refinery that is unhit now.
Maritime logistics in the Sea of Azov, all of this fits into the same strategy and operational concept, which is a strategic neutralisation of Russia.
I’m sure we will see more deep strikes on Russian territory," said Gaber.
The strikes have forced Crimean authorities to declare a state of emergency amid widespread blackouts, acute fuel shortages, and a collapsed tourism sector.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy characterized the targeted infrastructure operations as an ongoing campaign of domestic long-range sanctions mirroring Russia's refusal to halt hostilities.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin maintains that Moscow's original military objectives to control the eastern Donbas and other Ukrainian regions remain entirely unchanged.
Concurrently, Russian regional officials reported that retaliatory attacks killed three people in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, including two at an industrial facility in Kryvyi Rih.
