Two Russian vessels linked to the military have come under Ukrainian drone attack in the Caspian Sea, Ukraine's Special Operations Forces announced in a Telegram post on Friday.
The attack was launched by Chornaya Iskra (Black Spark) resistance group of the Special Operations Forces. The ships were identiefied as the Kompozitor Rakhmaninov and Askar-Sarydzha, and were struck near the coast of The Russian Republic of Kalmykia in the Caspian Sea, 700 kilometers from the frontline. Both ships are used for military purposes and are under US sanctions for their involvement in transporting military cargo between Iran and Russia.
There have not been any official comments from Kyiv or Moscow about the attack. It should be noted that Tehran and Moscow have enhanced military and logistics cooperation since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Iran has been supplying Russian with its Shaheed kamikaze drones that are widely used to overwhelm Ukraine’s defences and are not being produced in Russia under the name Geran. The United States has imposed multiple rounds of sanctions on Iran’s drone production networks over their roles in Russia’s war of invasion.
It should be noted that Friday’s attack on two Russian vessels in the Caspian Sea marks the second such strikes on Russian assets in this region. Earlier on Wednesday, Ukrainain drones struck Russia’s shadow fleet tanker Dashan with Sea Baby naval drones. On Thursday, Ukrainian forces hit a Russian oil platform in the Caspian Sea, suspending production at Lukoil company’s Filanovsky rig.
