Unidentified Drones Strike Greek-Owned Oil Tankers in Black Sea near Russia’s Novorossiysk Port

Unidentified drones struck two Greek-owned oil tankers in the Black Sea on Tuesday, including a vessel scheduled to load Kazakh crude at Russia’s coast, according to officials. The incidents did not cause major damage and no injuries were reported among the crews.

The vessels involved were the Maltese-flagged Matilda and the Liberian-flagged Delta Harmony, a Greek maritime ministry official told AFP. Neither Greek nor Kazakh authorities identified those responsible for the attacks.

The Matilda was en route to load Kazakh oil at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal near Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk when it was hit, Kazakhstan’s state energy company KazMunayGas said. The company confirmed that the crew was unharmed and that preliminary assessments showed the vessel remained seaworthy, with no signs of serious structural damage.

The Delta Harmony was not carrying cargo at the time of the incident. Kazakhstan’s energy ministry said its oil tanks were empty and stressed that the attack caused no damage to Kazakhstan’s export resources.

Ukraine, which has conducted repeated strikes against Russia’s energy infrastructure since Moscow’s invasion, did not immediately comment on the incidents. Ukrainian forces have targeted the CPC terminal multiple times during the nearly four-year conflict, including a naval drone attack last November that damaged one of the terminal’s three mooring points.

Kyiv has said such operations are intended to reduce the energy revenues Russia uses to finance the war and are a response to Russian missile and drone attacks. However, the strikes have caused frustration in Kazakhstan, which relies heavily on crude exports for its budget and ships around 80 percent of its oil through the CPC terminal.

Russia continues to carry out nightly drone and missile attacks across Ukraine, frequently hitting residential buildings, offices and other civilian infrastructure. These strikes have killed thousands of civilians over the past four years and severely damaged Ukraine’s energy sector, cutting power and heating supplies to millions.