Ukraine’s Drone Campaign Hits 300 Shadow Fleet Vessels in Azov and Black Sea

The Sea of Azov has been effectively shut down. On September 22, Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces announced that Operation MoLoChKa, their 11-week drone campaign targeting Russia's shadow tanker fleet, has disabled 300 vessels across the Sea of Azov and Black Sea.

Commander Robert "Madyar" Brovdi confirmed the milestone: 134 ships in the Sea of Azov and 166 in the Black Sea. The campaign began July 6. By late July, 196 vessels had been struck; the count reached 282 by September 9 before passing 300 this week.

"Disabled" means the ships were taken out of self-propelled condition, unable to move under their own power. The targets are aging tankers Russia has been running to ship oil in breach of Western sanctions.

Brovdi said the Kerch Strait is no longer safe for routine transit, and movement in the northern and northeastern Black Sea has become unpredictable.

The squeeze on commercial shipping has been building for weeks. Turkish carriers Akkon Lines and Arkas suspended their Black Sea services after a drone strike destroyed one of Akkon's ships. Separately, Turkey submitted a draft memorandum to Russia and Ukraine proposing two protected Black Sea shipping corridors, though no agreement has been reached.