Russia has been forced to halt shipping in the Sea of Azov after Ukrainian drone strikes targeted 90 vessels in less than a week, disrupting a vital maritime corridor. Ukraine's drone forces chief, Robert Brovdi, announced on Sunday that his units had hit ten tankers and four ferries overnight, alongside a major oil refinery at Syzran and electricity substations in occupied Crimea.
Brovdi declared that Moscow's shadow fleet, used to transport sanctioned oil, was shrinking and could no longer use the Kerch Strait linking the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea. The suspension of shipping through the Don-Azov canal, reported by Reuters on Friday, effectively cuts off Russian export routes via the Kerch and Bosphorus straits, which carry oil, grain and steel.
Andriy Zagorodnyuk, Ukraine's former defence minister, said the Kremlin had lost control of a critical maritime corridor, trapping Russia's small Caspian flotilla. “The Caspian Sea doesn’t have any connection to the world’s oceans. It has turned into a lake,” he noted, predicting further strikes on Russian ships near Novorossiysk.
Residents in Syzran reported drone sounds at 5am followed by explosions, with photos showing a large fire at the oil refinery that supplies the Russian military and exports fuel via the Azov-Kerch canal. Ukraine has systematically destroyed much of Russia's radar and anti-aircraft defences, enabling deep strikes on refineries as far as Omsk, 2,700km away.
Yevgeniya Gaber of the Atlantic Council described the attacks as part of a strategy to isolate Crimea and degrade Russia's logistics, fuel and transport infrastructure. “There is not a single oil refinery that is unhit now,” she said. Repeated drone attacks have caused blackouts, petrol shortages and a collapse of tourism in Crimea, with drivers queuing for fuel in Russia. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has framed the strikes as “long-range sanctions” in response to Moscow's refusal to end the war.
