From Libya, Ukraine Launches Drones Against Russian Ships

A secret Ukrainian unit based on Libya’s coast is firing air and sea drones at tanker ships carrying Russian oil and gas through the Mediterranean. Yesterday, the Kremlin charged that Ukrainian “Sea Baby” drones launched from Libya blew up and sank its liquefied natural gas tanker, the Arctic Metagaz.“The tanker experienced sudden explosions followed by a massive fire, which ultimately led to its complete sinking,” Libya’s maritime rescue agency said. This sinking is believed to be the first time in the 60-year-history of LNG tankers that one sank due to an act of war. After the Metagaz burned, all 30 crew members were rescued from a lifeboat. They were sent to Benghazi, the main port of Eastern Libya, a region currently allied with Russia. Rather than threading through 1,500 miles of water from Ukraine, the Sea Babies are believed to embark from Western Libya, either from a secret land base or from a mother ship in Libyan waters. At Tripoli, the North African nation’s internationally recognized government controls 250 miles of Mediterranean coastline, about one-quarter of the nation’s total. A map of Libya. APLast December, pilotless kamikaze drones launched from Libya hit and disabled an Aframax oil tanker, the Qendil. Three weeks later, this Omani-flagged ship ran aground on a Turkish island. This was the first time that Ukraine expanded its drone warfare into the Mediterranean. Also in December, Ukraine used its new long-range drones to fly hundreds of miles east to hit oil rigs and ships in the Caspian.At Kyiv, an officer from the Security Service of Ukraine told reporters: “The enemy must understand that Ukraine will not stop and will strike them anywhere in the world, wherever they may be.”Days later, President Vladimir Putin vowed in his annual televised press conference: “A response from our country will follow.” Yesterday, he protested on state TV: “This is a terrorist attack.”“We classify this incident as an act of international terrorism and maritime piracy,” Russia’s transport ministry said yesterday on Telegram. “The attack was presumably carried out off from the coast of Libya by unmanned Ukrainian boats.”A liquid natural gas tanker, Energy Glory, on February 10, 2025 at Grain, England. Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesUkraine has not publicly claimed authorship. However, a Ukrainian defense ministry advisor, Serhii Sternenko, posted on X videos and stills of both attacks, apparently taken by other drones. He captioned a video of the LNG tanker burning in a massive blaze: “It was attacked by sea drones. Unknown drones. This is, of course, not us.”Coupled with recent attacks on oil tankers in the Black Sea, the goal is to raise the cost of doing business with Russia. A 23-year-old LNG carrier like the Arctic Metagaz costs about $200 million. It sank with a cargo of 62,000 tons of LNG — worth another $30 million. According to the shipping database Equasis, the vessel has changed its name four times, its flag state seven times, and its ship manager eight times over the past four years. Under American, British, and European sanctions, this ship, currently flying under the Russian flag, is one of only 15 ships that carry gas from the Arctic to Communist China, the only country currently buying sanctioned Russian gas.As Western countries move to curb the “shadow fleet,” Belgium and France seized a tanker ferrying Russia’s crude this week. Ukraine now is armed with new home-made drones and missiles that fly further and carry bigger payloads. Almost daily, Ukraine pounds Russia’s oil export industry. President Vladimir Putin and Muammar Gaddafi at Tripoli in 2008. Kremlin.ru Via Wikimedia CommonsOn Sunday night, Ukraine sent a wave of 200 drones to attack Novorossiysk naval base and the adjacent Sheshkharis oil terminal, Russia’s largest oil-exporting terminal in the Black Sea. When the smoke cleared, five Russian Navy ships were damaged, according to Russian news feed Dosye Shpiona.The attack damaged five of the port’s seven loading facilities, forcing the terminal to stop pumping oil into tanker ships. The terminal can pump 700,000 barrels a day, the equivalent of 15 percent of Russia’s daily crude exports. Russia’s defense ministry said it downed 172 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 67 over the Black Sea and 66 over the Krasnodar region, where Novorossiysk is situated.“All night long, our military repelled a massive attack by Ukrainian drones,” said the governor of the Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratyev. “The strongest strike hit Novorossiysk, where a state of emergency was declared.”Last Friday, 120 miles to the north, a wave of Ukrainian drones hit the Albashneft refinery, damaging or destroying seven oil reservoirs. By closing off reservoir tanks and export terminals, the pressure moves upstream, forcing Russian production companies to cap wells.America’s assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, Barbara Leaf, meeting with General Khalifa Haftar of Libya in 2023. State Department via Wikimedia CommonsOn the geopolitical front, Ukraine’s new relationship with Libya, once a close ally, highlights how Russia has become the world’s shrinking superpower.In 2008, relations were so close that, on a visit to Moscow, Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi pitched his Bedouin tent and set up his barbecue grill inside the Kremlin’s Taynitsky, or “Secret,” Garden. Three years later, Gaddafi’s death at the hands of rebels was a geopolitical blow to Russia and a deep shock to Mr. Putin. Fifteen years later, Western Libya is being used to fire drones at ships belonging to Russia’s “shadow” fleet. To win back influence in the region, Russia cultivates the de facto ruler of Eastern Libya, General Khalifa Haftar. A fluent Russian speaker, General Haftar spent three years in his youth attending the M.V. Frunze Military Academy at Moscow. Over the last decade, General Haftar visited Moscow five times, including meeting with Mr. Putin at the Kremlin last May. In return, Russia showers him with benefits — printing Libyan dinars, treating his wounded soldiers, providing arms, and offering to build military bases.Yet today’s ties are not like the bonds of the Soviet era. After General Haftar broke with Gaddafi, he lived for almost 20 years at Langley, Virginia, where he acquired American citizenship. This is also home to the CIA.

From Libya, Ukraine Launches Drones Against Russian Ships

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