Ukraine reportedly strikes another shadow fleet tanker in Black Sea

A SANCTIONED shadow fleet* suezmax tanker was reportedly struck in the Black Sea on Wednesday.

Maritime security sources said they have received reports that the 2005-built, UK- and EU-sanctioned Dashan (IMO: 9299666) was struck by Ukrainian unmanned surface vehicles as it was sailing towards Novorossiysk.

Lloyd’s List Intelligence vessel-tracking data shows the tanker was sailing east in the Black Sea when it slowed down and deviated from its course ataround 11:20 UTC before ceasing AIS transmission at around 12:00.

Maritime risk management firm Vanguard Tech said it was aware of “reports from Russian sources” indicating an attack on Dashan.

“Although the incident has not yet been independently verified, the circumstances are consistent with previous Ukrainian strikes on merchant vessels believed to be part of Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’,” said Vanguard.

Maritime security firm Ambrey said it observed a Royal Air Force aircraft conducting a flyover 16 nautical miles “south of the area of interest” ataround 14:20 UTC, which “correlates with the alleged time of the attack”.

Details of the incident could not be immediately validated, but if confirmed, it would mark the third attack by Ukraine on shadow fleet tankers in the Black Sea in recent weeks, following strikes on Kairos (IMO: 9236004) and Virat (IMO: 9832559) on November 28. Both attacks were claimed by Ukraine’s armed forces.

Ukraine is also suspected to be behind the attack on the Türkiye-owned Mersin (IMO: 9428683) off the coast of Dakar on November 27, although Kiev did not claim responsibility for this incident.

However, Control Risks assessed that the Mersin attack was a “Ukrainian state-sponsored operation”, fitting a pattern of Ukrainian covert operations against vessels that called in Russian ports.

Dashan’s AIS data indicates that it is flagged by Gambia, but the IMO’s GISIS database says it is falsely flying the flag. The Gambia Maritime Administration said in statement on December 1 that it purged its registry of 74 tankers sanctioned by the US, EU and UK, including Virat and Kairos, on November 10.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ukraine detained and arrested a bulker in Odesa on charges of illegal export grain from “the occupied Ukrainian territory of Crimea”.

* Lloyd’s List defines a tanker as being part of the Shadow Fleet if it engages in one or more deceptive shipping practices indicating that it is involved in the facilitation of sanctioned oil cargoes from Iran, Russia or Venezuela. Or it is sanctioned for participation in sanctioned oil trades or is sanctioned for links to a company that is sanctioned for facilitating the export of sanctioned oil. Or it participates in a cargo delivery where at some point over the course of the delivery one party in the chain engages in one or more deceptive shipping practices.
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