Ukraine hits Russian 'shadow fleet' tanker in Black Sea
The tanker has previously called at Russian ports, including Novorossiysk, Tuapse, and St. Petersburg, and repeatedly switched off its transponder to conceal its route
Ukraine's military have struck a Russian "shadow fleet" tanker in the Black Sea, the Ukrainian General Staff said.
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Ukraine’s Defense Forces reportedly struck a missile and drone navigation systems plant, an oil refinery in Samara, and a Russian "shadow fleet" tanker in the Black Sea.
The vessel, known as West Horizon, sustained damage to its propulsion and steering system, leaving it unable to move.
Under sanctions from the United Kingdom, Ukraine and Australia for transporting Russian oil, the tanker was linked to the Turkish company Beks.
The tanker has previously called at Russian ports, including Novorossiysk, Tuapse, and St. Petersburg, and repeatedly switched off its transponder to conceal its route.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that a new round of European Union sanctions would not achieve its aims of halting Putin's "shadow fleet".
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The EU said on Monday it had expanded the mandate of Operation IRINI, its naval mission in the Mediterranean that was originally set up to enforce a UN arms embargo on Libya.
The measure authorises EU military vessels in the Mediterranean to stop and inspect foreign ships suspected of being part of a "shadow fleet" transporting Russian oil.
Ms Zakharova warned Russia would take all necessary legal and other measures to protect the vessels as she hit out at the fresh sanctions.
She said there was no such thing in international law as a "shadow fleet", and this term was a "political fabrication" by the EU.
"The European Union's deployment of ships from the IRINI naval operation deployed in the Mediterranean to inspect or seize, as they now say, vessels carrying oil products would constitute a flagrant violation of international law," Ms Zakharova told a press briefing.
She added: "We reserve the right to use the full arsenal of political, legal, and other instruments at our disposal to protect maritime security and the legitimate interests of shippers and shipowners."
However, the new package of sanctions still needs to be approved unanimously by EU countries.
It proposes listing 170 individuals and entities including close to 90 banks - the biggest in one go - and would take the total number of listed banks to over 100, or more than half of Russia's 213 internationally connected lenders.
The banks will come under the full weight of EU sanctions including asset freezes, travel and transaction bans. The package will be presented to EU ambassadors on Wednesday for negotiations.
Western sanctions already heavily target Russia's banking system and its major banks were disconnected in 2022 from SWIFT, a secure global financial payment instructions system.
But Russian companies now uses a broad network of smaller lenders to evade sanctions and continue trading.