Ukrainian naval drones hit two sanctioned tankers in the Black Sea as they headed to a Russian port to load up with oil destined for foreign markets, an official said on Saturday, as Kyiv tries to pile pressure on Russia’s vast oil industry.
Elsewhere, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Ukrainian negotiators in Florida on Sunday for talks on Washington’s plan to end Russia’s war against Ukraine, a US official said.
The two oil tankers, identified as the Kairos and Virat, were empty and sailing to Novorossiysk, a major Russian Black Sea oil terminal, the official at the Security Service of Ukraine told Reuters.
Naval drones could be seen speeding towards hulking tankers followed by powerful explosions that caused fires on the vessels, video footage shared by the official showed.
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Reuters could not independently verify the identity of the tankers in the clips or the location and date of the footage.
Ukraine has been attacking Russian oil refineries for months, using long-range aerial drones to strike far behind the front lines of Moscow’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
The strikes on the tankers represent a different kind of attack. Kyiv has repeatedly called on the West to take real action against Russia’s “shadow fleet”, which the Ukrainian government says is helping Moscow export large quantities of oil and fund its war in Ukraine despite western sanctions.
The fleet of hundreds of often ageing, unregulated vessels came to prominence after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, bypassing western sanctions aimed at reducing Moscow’s oil revenue.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced earlier on Saturday that a Ukrainian delegation was en route to the US for peace talks. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will also attend the meeting.
“Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and head of the Ukrainian delegation Rustem Umerov, together with the team, is already on the way to the United States,” Mr Zelenskiy said in a post on X.
The meeting will take place without Mr Zelenskiy’s top aide, Andriy Yermak, who resigned on Friday after anti-corruption agencies conducted searches at his apartment.
Russian officials said earlier that Mr Witkoff planned to travel to Moscow next week, echoing US president Donald Trump’s words that he would send his envoy to Russia to meet Vladimir Putin to discuss a “fine-tuned” peace plan.
Russia unleashed a nearly 10-hour air assault across Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least two people in the capital and injuring dozens more, according to Ukrainian authorities.
The attack involved dozens of Russian missiles and hundreds of drones.
French president Emmanuel Macron will on Monday host Mr Zelenskiy for talks in Paris, with France raising the prospect of imposing new sanctions on Russia to “exhaust its economy”.
The two leaders will discuss “the conditions for a just and lasting peace”, the French foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, said on Saturday.
