Armed Conflict — 2026-07-15

Ukraine Hits 116 Vessels in Nine Days in Sea of Azov Campaign Targeting Russian Shadow Fleet and Crimea Fuel Supply

BLUFUkraine's sustained Azov interdiction is evolving from harassment into a logistics stranglehold capable of degrading Crimea's fuel supply and forcing costly Russian rerouting across multiple supply chains.

Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces (USF/SBS) said drone units struck 116 Russian-linked vessels in the Sea of Azov over nine days through July 14, including 11 hit overnight: five tankers, five dry-cargo ships and one tugboat 1234. USF commander Robert "Madyar" Brovdi said Operation MoLoChKa targets Russia's feeder-tanker fleet supplying Black Sea export vessels and fuel to occupied Crimea 23. Russia halted new vessel transit through the Kerch Strait and suspended the Azov-Don shipping channel, with its transport ministry acknowledging cargo may be rerouted through Black Sea and Baltic ports 5; Sevastopol's Moscow-installed governor imposed two-hour power blocks followed by six-hour outages amid fuel shortages 5. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the strikes "terrorism" against civilian shipping, a claim Ukraine denies 1, and the IMO's Arsenio Dominguez separately condemned the attacks on merchant vessels in the Azov and Black Seas 1.

Analysis
Ukraine's Azov campaign is shifting from raid-scale strikes to sustained interdiction against the feeder-tanker chokepoint, where 12-15 small tankers supply each large export vessel, rather than the export tankers themselves, with the tally growing from 91 hit by July 12 to 105 by July 13 to 116 now. Sevastopol's rolling power cuts point to spillover into Russia's own domestic distribution network beyond Crimea, and Moscow's rerouting acknowledgment, paired with Lavrov's "terrorism" framing and separate IMO condemnation, indicates Russia is treating the campaign as strategically significant. Reporting rests on two primary accounts, Kyiv Post and Commander Brovdi's Telegram statement, with other outlets relaying uncorroborated figures, leaving open the possibility Kyiv is inflating the campaign's material effect for information-operations value absent confirmed sinkings.

6 sources

Ukraine Claims 116 Russian Ships Hit in Nine Days in Sea of Azov - gCaptain
116 Russian ships in nine days: One big export tanker needs 12–15 small ones to fill it. Ukraine is burning the small ones - Euromaidan Press
Ukraine strikes 11 more Russian vessels in Sea of Azov overnight – video - Ukrainska Pravda
USF Reports 116 Russian Ships Struck in Nine Days During Expanding Azov Sea Drone Offensive - Kyiv Post
Ukraine war briefing: Spotlight on hundreds of alleged PoW executions by Russia - The Guardian
116 vessels struck by SBS Birds in nine days in the Sea of Azov (Operation MoLoChKa) - Telegram — Robert "Madyar" Brovdi, Commander, Unmanned Systems Forces (USF/SBS)