Ukrainian Navy drones struck the sanctioned shadow fleet tanker MARQUISE off Russia's Black Sea coast on the morning of 29 April, according to the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces. The empty Cameroon-flagged tanker was drifting roughly 210 km southeast of Tuapse with its automatic identification system (AIS) switched off, likely waiting to take on Russian oil from another vessel at sea. Two kamikaze sea drones hit the ship in its propulsion gear and engine room.
How the strike unfolded
A Ukrainian Navy unit hit the MARQUISE with two unmanned kamikaze surface vessels on the morning of 29 April, the General Staff said on Facebook. The 184-meter tanker, flying a Cameroonian flag and carrying no cargo, was drifting roughly 210 km southeast of Tuapse with no AIS signal, and was likely awaiting an at-sea loading from another vessel.
"The strikes were made on the stern, in the area of the propeller-rudder group and the engine compartment," the General Staff said.
The MARQUISE has a cargo capacity of more than 37,000 tons. Ukrainian forces are still assessing the extent of the damage.
A 20-year-old tanker on six sanctions lists
The MARQUISE is sanctioned by Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Canada, the General Staff said. Russia has used the tanker for illegal petroleum product transport.
According to Ukraine's military intelligence agency, HUR, the 20-year-old vessel has been moving sanctioned Russian crude and refined fuels in violation of the G7 price cap, which took effect at the end of 2023. The vessel routinely disables its AIS signal in the Kerch Strait area and in ports of occupied Crimea. Per the same registry, the MARQUISE called at two occupied Crimean terminals — Komysh-Burun and Feodosia — across May and June 2025.
HUR also records an August 2024 voyage in which the MARQUISE shipped over 30,000 tonnes of Russian fuel cargo out of Tuapse to Türkiye on charter to Turkish refiner Tupras.
Ukraine's expanding "kinetic sanctions" against the shadow fleet
Ukraine has steadily expanded what officials call "kinetic sanctions" — physical strikes on Russia's shadow fleet that go where Western sanctions cannot. In late November 2025, Ukrainian Security Service naval drones struck the sanctioned tankers Kairos and Virat near the Bosphorus Strait. In December, Sea Baby drones hit the Dashan tanker near Novorossiysk, while the SBU's Alpha unit reached the QENDIL tanker more than 2,000 km away in the Mediterranean Sea.
In December 2025, Ukraine imposed sanctions on 656 Russian shadow fleet vessels in a single decree.
