Ukraine has paused drone strikes on oil tankers at Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk after a request from U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Kyiv officials told the Financial Times.
The paper said last month's request followed U.S. alarm that Ukraine was destabilizing oil markets and harming U.S. firms by targeting tankers carrying crude piped from Kazakhstan to a Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal at the port.
Ukraine agreed not to target CPC infrastructure or non-Russian vessels as long as the latter were not under Ukrainian sanctions and were not carrying Russian oil or cargo, the newspaper added.
The White House, State Department and Vance's office did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment outside business hours. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
Ukrainian forces recently stepped up strikes on Russian energy infrastructure and other sites in an effort Kyiv says aims at depriving Russia of resources to fund its military.
