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Three Tankers Struck by Suspected Drone Attacks in Black Sea Near Türkiye’s Northern Coast
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Three tankers were struck by drones in the Black Sea near Türkiye’s northern coastline, according to Türkiye Today on May 28, citing shipping agency Tribeca.
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The tanker James II, sailing under the Palau flag and traveling in ballast, was hit in its engine room approximately 50 miles (80 km) north of the Turkeli area and around 47 miles from the Bosporus Strait. The vessel had 20 crew members on board at the time of the incident, Tribeca and Turkish-language reports said.
“Coastal safety boats were dispatched to the scene. All crew members aboard all three vessels were reported in good condition,” the agency stated, according to the outlet.
In a separate but related incident in the same area, two additional tankers—Altura and Velora, both sailing under the Sierra Leone flag and also in ballast—were struck while engaged in a ship-to-ship operation, Türkiye Today reported.
The origin of the drones has not yet been independently confirmed, the outlet reported.
Against this backdrop, Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces reported a separate overnight operation targeting Russian naval infrastructure in occupied Crimea and the Russian mainland.
Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces struck the Russian frigate Admiral Essen at Novorossiysk overnight on May 23, marking what Ukrainian officials described as the fourth attack on the vessel since early March.
Commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces Robert Brovdi confirmed the operation in a post on Facebook, framing it as part of a sustained effort against the same Russian warship.
“You are doomed to sink someday, you scab—you won't hide,” Brovdi wrote, directly addressing the vessel.
He also listed additional targets struck during the same overnight operation, including a Project 12356 frigate near a pier at the Novorossiysk naval base and a Project 1239 missile corvette on air cushion stationed in the same port area.
Beyond naval assets, Brovdi said Ukrainian forces also hit key Russian energy infrastructure, including both terminals of the Novorossiysk “Sheskharis” oil complex and the “Grushovaya Balka” storage facility, which he described as the largest petroleum reserve in the Caucasus, with a capacity of around 1.2 million tons of fuel.
Earlier in May, a coordinated operation involving Ukraine’s Defense Forces and the Security Service of Ukraine targeted two tankers associated with Russia’s so-called shadow oil fleet near the approach to a port entrance.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the strike formed part of Kyiv’s strategy to enforce what he described as military “sanctions” against ships involved in transporting Russian crude oil in bypass of Western restrictions.
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