Turkiye has warned Ukraine after it carried out drone strikes on two sanctioned oil tankers off its Black Sea coast, which it acknowledged and claimed responsibility for.
These attacks come days after Geneva talks between the US, Ukraine, and EU officials had ended in stalemate without making any headway. As per Turkish officials, the Gambian-flagged vessels Virat and Kairos came under drone attack on Friday while en route to the Russian seaport of Novorossiysk.
According to crews, the ships caught fire, and at least one sustained hull damage. The Turkish Coast Guard later rescued the crews. Russia earlier launched a series of drone and missile attacks on Ukraine’s eastern part, where both forces are fighting to push back against each other in one of the deadliest battles of 2025.
Official and military sources in Ukraine on Saturday acknowledged that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Ukrainian Navy carried out the attack using Sea Baby drones previously deployed against Russian warships. Turkiye’s foreign ministry has warned Ukraine over the latest attacks, saying these actions are not acceptable to Ankara.
Turkish foreign ministry spokesperson Oncu Keceli, in a post on X, wrote, “These incidents, which took place within our Exclusive Economic Zone in the Black Sea, have posed serious risks to navigation, human life, property, and the environment.” He said that Turkiye was communicating with all parties to “prevent the spread of the war and further escalation in the Black Sea.”
Meanwhile, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which handles around 80 per cent of Kazakhstan’s oil exports, said on Saturday that it had suspended operations after a mooring at its terminal near Novorossiysk was heavily damaged by sea drones. The operator, whose shareholders include US companies Chevron and Exxon Mobil, described the strikes as a “targeted terrorist attack”.
