UKRAINE HAS SAID it hit a Russian “shadow fleet” tanker with aerial drones in neutral waters of the Mediterranean Sea today, its first strike there in the nearly four-year war.

Estimated to include up to 1,000 ships, which frequently change their flags and whose ownership is unclear, the fleet has enabled Moscow to keep exporting its crude oil for much-needed revenue despite embargoes on exports.

Experts and several European leaders also believe some vessels have been used by Russia to conduct sabotage and other hostile acts across the continent.

A source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said the strike was a “new, unprecedented special operation” – Kyiv’s first military action in the Mediterranean, carried out around 2,000 kilometres from the country’s borders.

The source however did not give further details of the attack, including how the SBU deployed a drone in the Mediterranean, from where it was launched, or which countries it could have flown over.

The SBU source said the cargo ship was empty at the time of the attack and there was no environmental threat resulting from the operation.

It claimed the tanker, called the QENDIL, had “sustained critical damage and cannot be used for its intended purpose”.

The tanker, sailing under the flag of Oman, had departed from Sikka in India for the Russian port of Ust-Luga, according to navigation data provided by Bloomberg.

Its route, consistent with satellite images reviewed by AFP, shows it made a U-turn during the night, around 250 kilometres off the coasts of Greece and Libya.

It appeared to be heading east this morning.

The SBU source said the tanker was used to circumvent Western sanctions and fund Russia’s war chest, and claimed the ship was “an absolutely legitimate target”.

“The enemy must understand that Ukraine will not stop and will strike them anywhere in the world, wherever they may be,” the source added.

Kyiv, which has been fending off Russia’s invasion for almost four years, has claimed similar hits on Russia-linked tankers off Turkey’s Black Sea coast, after two empty oil tankers were hit by explosions.