Ukraine sank the sanctioned Russian container ship Yanina in the Black Sea early on Saturday, in one of the most significant strikes of its naval drone campaign, while its security service hit three Russian oil refineries nearly 1,600 kilometers away, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed.
The 100,000-tonne capacity vessel, sailing under the Russian flag and operated by FESCO, the shipping subsidiary of state nuclear giant Rosatom, was struck by at least two Ukrainian drones near the Russian port of Novorossiysk, according to Rosatom. All 17 crew members abandoned the ship after it began to sink and were rescued.
Rosatom said the ship was carrying civilian goods including frozen food and construction materials, and that there was no indication it was involved in nuclear-related activity or carrying nuclear material. Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev condemned the sinking, saying: “Such an attack cannot be interpreted as anything other than piracy and robbery at sea.”
Zelenskyy said the Yanina, with a capacity of more than 100,000 tonnes, had been “sent to the bottom” and that Ukrainian forces also struck targets in the waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Units of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) attacked infrastructure at three oil refineries in Russia’s Bashkortostan region, about 1,600 kilometers from Ukraine, in an operation that targeted facilities processing millions of tonnes of oil every year.
Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Russian-flagged ships since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, accusing Moscow of using civilian vessels to transport sanctioned goods including oil. Russian strikes on Ukrainian port infrastructure and on ships approaching Ukrainian ports have intensified in recent weeks, attacks that Kyiv describes as war crimes.
The naval strike came as Russia pounded Kyiv with ballistic missiles and drones, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens, in what officials called a renewed escalation against the capital. Zelenskyy has warned that Ukraine’s air defenses are being stretched thin and that Patriot interceptor stocks are running low, leaving ballistic missiles largely unopposed.
The sinking of a vessel owned by a state nuclear corporation is a symbolic blow to Moscow and adds to pressure on Russian civilian shipping in the Black Sea, where insurance costs and routing decisions have already been disrupted by more than four years of war. The strikes on Bashkortostan refineries, meanwhile, underline the growing reach of Ukraine’s drone operations, which have repeatedly hit targets more than 1,000 kilometers from the front line.
Sources: BBC News, Ukrainska Pravda, The Moscow Times
Author: Ukraine Desk
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