By Memphis Barker July 17, 2026
The Ukrainian drones hovered over the shipping lanes in the Sea of Azov until they caught sight of their prey.
Spread out on the waters below, Russian tankers – sluggish, defenceless vessels of around 7,000-ton capacity – were sailing towards the occupied Crimean peninsula. Explosions lit up the night sky as the drones swooped down, one after another. In the morning, satellite imagery picked up smoke still rising from the hull of one of their crippled victims. This July 14 attack brought the number of Russian vessels hit in the Sea of Azov to 116 in a week-long campaign, according to Ukraine’s drone forces.
These intense strikes on a maritime trade route – equivalent to one every two hours – have effectively halted traffic on a key supply line, in a campaign with few parallels in the history of modern warfare. “The shadow fleet is wasting away,” said Major Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, the commander of Ukraine’s drone forces, in a post updating the operation’s “score-card” on the morning of July 15.
By cutting off supplies of fuel to Crimea, where residents already face prolonged power cuts and a ban on purchases of petrol, Major Brovdi hopes to spark the eventual collapse of the Russian empire.
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