(KYIV) – Ukrainian drone forces have struck 201 vessels of Russia’s shadow fleet in three weeks during an operation that has paralysed maritime logistics in the Sea of Azov, according to the units involved.
The operation, codenamed “MoLoChKa” and launched on 6 July, is being conducted by the Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS) in coordination with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Navy. Robert Brovdi, commander of the SBS unit known as “Magyar,” reported 129 hits in the Sea of Azov between 6 and 28 July and 72 in the Black Sea between 15 and 28 July. The tally excludes vessels captured by Ukrainian forces.
Brovdi stated that Kerch Bay is now blocked indefinitely. “Birds promised 221 ships. We will have to strain, because there are absolutely no more of them left there, except for the damaged, which have been converted into non-self-propelled barges,” he said.
The targeted vessels are not warships but the feeder tankers, dry cargo ships, ferries, tugs, floating cranes and gas carriers that form the backbone of Russia’s sanctions-busting oil trade. Western sanctions and a price cap on Russian crude pushed the Kremlin to assemble a parallel fleet of roughly 1,500 ageing vessels bought through shell companies, often sailing under flags such as Panama, Gabon or the Cook Islands, frequently without proper insurance and with crews hired blind.
These small, shallow-draft ships collect oil from Russian terminals and transfer it to larger ocean-going tankers at anchorage points near the Kerch Strait. According to Brovdi, filling one such large tanker requires 12 to 15 shuttle trips. Knocking out a single feeder therefore slows the loading cycle by that fraction, while hitting dozens physically throttles the financial pipeline funding Russia’s war.
Ukraine has no naval vessels in the Sea of Azov and does not control a single metre of its coastline, which has been under Russian occupation since 2022. The sea is among the shallowest in the world, with an average depth of about eight metres, forcing all traffic into narrow, dredged channels from which ships cannot deviate. A damaged vessel drifting in such a channel blocks the entire route. Striking dredgers and tugs allows the channels to silt up naturally, effectively closing the sea without a naval blockade.
The operation is also degrading supply lines to occupied Crimea. Brovdi noted that the Kerch ferry crossing lost around 75 percent of its capacity during the operation’s first fortnight, with some ferries destroyed and others reduced to unpowered barges. Before the strikes, those ferries moved up to 250 vehicles per day, roughly 80 percent of them for Russian military needs.
A third effect is the forced redeployment of Russia’s most capable drone unit. The Kremlin has pulled roughly 200 crews of the “Rubikon” unmanned systems unit, described as Russia’s drone special forces, from the front line and scattered them across the Azov to guard individual ships. “Cheap maritime drones somewhere in the shallow Sea of Azov are forcing the enemy to take their most expensive strike drone unit from the front and disperse it to guard rusty tankers,” Brovdi said.
He added that the operation is shifting emphasis into the Black Sea. “First Azov. Now open Black Sea communications. The sea is gradually ceasing to be a rear area and is becoming shot through.”
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