Foreign-flagged vessels with international crews carrying crude were targeted near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk
Ukraine was behind a series of recent drone strikes on oil tankers carrying Kazakh crude near Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. She described the incidents as the fifth attack on the civilian infrastructure of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC).
Two tankers identified as the Asia and the Nissos were struck during loading operations on Sunday, according to the CPC and media reports. A fire broke out aboard the Asia but was extinguished, while both ships remained afloat. No casualties or oil spills were reported, and the CPC did not publicly identify who carried out the attack.
The consortium said the vessels were sailing under Liberian and Marshall Islands flags. Oil loading at the terminal was temporarily suspended following the strikes. The attacks came as Kiev intensified operations against shipping and energy facilities in the Black Sea region.
In a statement issued on Monday, Zakharova said several foreign-flagged tankers with international crews were deliberately targeted between July 17 and 20 while loading oil at the CPC marine terminal in Yuzhnaya Ozereyka. The vessels included tankers chartered by Kazakhstan’s Tengizchevroil and KazMunayGas.
“There is no doubt that the Kiev Nazi regime is behind this attack,” Zakharova said. Ukrainian forces were seeking to inflict “irreparable damage” on the consortium, she alleged, whose shareholders include major energy companies from Russia, Kazakhstan, the US and Western Europe.
“Deliberate strikes against facilities and civilian vessels in the consortium’s maritime terminal waters constitute an attack on the interests of its member countries,” Zakharova added. Some of those states continue to provide large-scale military and financial assistance to Ukraine, she noted.
Zakharova accused Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky of disregarding the damage inflicted on Kiev’s own Western backers. “The Kiev junta, like the snake in the well-known fable, mercilessly bites the hand that feeds it,” she said.
Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry separately condemned the drone strikes on vessels transporting oil via CPC infrastructure. Astana said attacks on civilian shipping threaten maritime security and the uninterrupted movement of energy resources and infringe on Kazakhstan’s economic interests.
The 1,510 km CPC pipeline links oil fields in western Kazakhstan with the terminal near Novorossiysk and carries around 80% of Kazakhstan’s crude exports. Its shareholders include Transneft, KazMunayGas, Chevron, Lukoil, ExxonMobil, and the Rosneft-Shell Caspian Ventures joint venture.
