Over the course of 12 days, the SBS struck 159 vessels in Russia's shadow fleet
As part of Operation “MoLoChKa,” the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ unmanned systems struck 159 vessels belonging to the Russian shadow fleet between July 6 and 17. At the same time, since the start of the day on July 17, another 12 vessels have been struck in the Black Sea.
According to Robert “Madyar” Brovdi, commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces, the vessels struck over the past 24 hours included nine dry cargo ships, two tankers—one of which was a gas carrier—and one tugboat.
In total, over the 12 days of the operation, the Ukrainian military has struck 117 vessels in the Sea of Azov and another 42 in the Black Sea.
As Brovdi noted, the main goal of the operation is to disrupt the logistics of the Russian shadow fleet, which is used to transport oil, fuel, and other cargoes in circumvention of international sanctions.
According to the commander, the mission of the Unmanned Systems Forces is to disable vessels without harming the marine ecosystem; therefore, the strikes are not aimed at damaging the hulls of the vessels, which could lead to oil spills.
Brovdi, the commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces, announced this on Facebook.
As a reminder, on the night of July 17, a series of explosions rocked the temporarily occupied city of Kerch during a large-scale drone attack. NASA satellite images captured numerous fires in the area of the railway station and other infrastructure facilities.
Russia launched a massive shelling of the Kharkiv region, resulting in one fatality and 14 injuries.
Russia attacked Ukraine with 151 drones and a missile; air defense forces neutralized more than 130 targets.
