Zelenskyy says three ‘shadow fleet’ vessels hit along with guided missile corvette; Ukrainian drones menace Moscow and surrounds. What we know on day 1,531
Ukraine on Sunday launched a wave of strikes against Russian oil targets, hitting the key port of Primorsk on the Baltic Sea and three ships that Ukraine alleges were illegally used to transport Russian crude. A night-time drone strike started a fire at the Primorsk port, the Russian regional governor confirmed. The port, operated by Russia’s state oil firm Transneft, is capable of handling hundreds of thousands of barrels per day. Primorsk, which was targeted multiple times in March, lies over 1,000km (620 miles) from Ukraine, between the Russian-Finnish border and Russia’s second-largest city of St Petersburg.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that as part of the operation against Primorsk port Ukrainian forces also hit a Karakurt guided missile corvette, a patrol boat, and a tanker belonging to Russia’s so-called shadow oil fleet used to evade western sanctions and price caps. “One more Russian carrier of Kalibr missiles is out of action,” said Ukraine’s president. Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had struck two more “shadow fleet” tankers near the entrance of the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.
