Ukrainian drone strikes forced Russia to stop shipping in vital sea corridor

Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Minimize to nav Ukrainian drone strikes have forced Russia to completely halt shipping in the Sea of Azov in less than a week—showing once again how a country without traditional naval power can still effectively blockade maritime corridors. Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces have flown one-way attack drones to target and strike more than 100 Russian tankers and other ships every night between July 6 and July 13, along with posting video evidence showing such drone strikes. The campaign has forced Russia to completely shut down the shipping route that flows from Russia’s Don River into the Sea of Azov, and to halt all Kerch Strait shipping transits from the Sea of Azov into the Black Sea, according to Reuters reporting. The shutdown of such maritime lanes has further isolated the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula by cutting off seaborne delivery of fuel in particular. Crimea had already been experiencing severe fuel rationing and power outages as Ukraine stepped up its mid- and long-range drone strike campaign on Russian energy infrastructure and supply lines, leaving behind damaged oil refineries with billowing black smoke and burned-out trucks littering highways. Restrictions on shipping in and out of the Sea of Azov could also impact one-quarter of Russian grain exports, Reuters reported. Wheat prices have started rising because Russia is the world’s largest exporter of grains. “Ukrainian strikes against Russian seaborne gasoline transports over the past week represent a new phase in Ukraine’s efforts to isolate occupied Crimea from the Russian logistics network and to disrupt Russian seaborne shipping routes, especially for petroleum products and grain,” according to the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, DC. The Ukrainian videos showing the strikes from the drones’ perspective typically cut off at the moment of impact. But burning ships are visible in some videos taken of the aftermath and can also be seen in public satellite imagery from the European Union’s Copernicus Sentinel satellites and other sources. The Ukrainian drones appear to be primarily targeting the ships’ bridges that represent the command-and-control centers, which can force the crew to abandon ship, according to Salvatore Mercogliano, a professor of history at Campbell University in North Carolina and a merchant mariner. “You’re not going to sink the ship like this, but this is a mission kill,” Mercogliano explained in a video posted to his channel “What’s Going on With Shipping?” Most large Russian ships appear to have cleared out of the Sea of Azov with the exception of a cluster of about 25 vessels in the northeast, according to a review of public satellite imagery by the Ukrainian news publication Defense Express. Others are grouped in the Black Sea for possible cargo transfer operations. Russian milbloggers who support the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine have complained about the apparent lack of protection for Russian ships in the Sea of Azov, according to the Institute of War. The Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet has already been forced to mostly hunker down in port after Ukraine’s earlier successes in using sea drones to damage and even sink warships. Ukrainian air and sea drones have continued to strike Russian warships and other vessels even in port. Ukrainian drones have also been attacking Russian ships in the Black Sea and beyond. On July 8, the Security Service of Ukraine posted a video showing a Sea Baby naval drone striking a crude oil tanker when it was supposedly located near the southern end of the Crimean Peninsula, according to Ukrainska Pravda. In December 2025, Ukraine even sent aerial drones to strike a “shadow fleet” tanker carrying sanctioned Russian oil in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya’s coast. Such feats show how Ukraine has managed to counter Russia’s traditional naval superiority and pressure Russian shipping lanes without fielding a naval force of crewed surface warships or submarines. A similar scenario is playing out in the Strait of Hormuz shipping chokepoint, where Iran now claims the authority to charge a transit fee and has used drone and missile strikes to halt much of the usual commercial shipping traffic despite the large presence of US military warships and aircraft.