Shadow Tanker Hit by Ukrainian Drones Threatens Spill Off Russia's Black Sea Coast

In brief: A Ukrainian drone strike set the 107,000-ton Aframax Rio ablaze 30 km (15 nautical miles) off Sochi. Russian officials say no pollution occurred and reopened beaches, while reports indicate oil spilled and burned on the water.

Authorities in the Russian Black Sea resort region of Sochi said that a massive oil tanker set afire and left adrift by Ukrainian drones is no threat to local bathers and waters, and that beaches closed to protect bathers and wetlands are now open to the public, local media reported on Thursday.

Sochi Mayor Andrey Proshunin said in a Wednesday statement that his office was closely monitoring offshore sea quality, telling voters the situation was under control and that citizen safety was his highest priority.

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“At present the open fire on the tanker has been liquidated and rescue vessels are observing. Pollution of water with the oil cargo [carried in the tanker] has not been recorded. The tanker is drifting with the current along the shoreline,” Proshunin said.

“Local environmental watch agencies are checking pollutant levels in water, air and the ground across the greater Sochi region, and as a safe measure all beaches will be closed to swimming until those checks are complete,” he continued.

Proshunin told voters to remain calm.

“I ask all to remain calm, to observe current rules and restrictions, and to trust only reliable sources of information. The situation is under constant monitoring by the city operational staff,” he added.

Russia’s national environmental watch agency Rospotrebnadzor, in a Wednesday announcement published by the Kremlin-sponsored news agency TASS, took the same position but didn’t mention the drones.

“There is no pollution to the Black Sea as a result of the fire aboard the tanker near Sochi. Agencies are monitoring the shore belt and waters of the Black Sea,” the agency said.

Dmitry Plishkin, head of the Sirius region containing Sochi and adjacent towns and villages, said in a Thursday statement that all local waters and beaches had received a clean bill of health for environmental safety and are now open.

Plishkin’s statement made no reference to the damaged 107,000-ton tanker which, according to Sochi-based news platforms, was in international waters drifting slowly northeast in light seas.

The Liberia-flagged Aframax Rio, a 246-meter (807-feet) long and 107,113-ton deadweight vessel built in 2004, is sanctioned by Ukraine as a shadow tanker Russia uses to evade Western oil export sanctions. The Aframax was southbound when it was hit and set fiercely afire in an early Tuesday evening drone attack.

The blaze under clear skies some 15 nautical miles (30 km) off the shore of Sochi – the heart of the “Russia Riviera” Black Sea resort region – was observed by thousands of local residents and tourists.

Video of the burning ship showed flames engulfing the entire top deck, with the fiercest fires concentrated around the middle of the tanker. The US Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), run by NASA, showed fires burning near the tanker for more than 24 hours before being extinguished.

The Liberia-flagged Afromax Rio burns following a Ukrainian drone strike offshore from the Russian resort port of Sochi on Oct. 6, 2026. The vessel, sanctioned by Ukraine as a shadow tanker, was reportedly fully loaded and left drifting. (Photo via sochiradar / Telegram)

Imagery of the fire and its expansion recorded live from shore on Wednesday showed the blaze most concentrated in the central portion of the ship’s upper deck, an area often targeted by Ukrainian airborne drones attacking tankers in the past. Ukrainian sea drone attacks in past strikes on tankers have focused on engine rooms and propellers near the stern.

The Russian local news platform Sochi Radar reported that the Aframax Rio was fully loaded and that so much oil had spilled into the water and caught fire that firefighters were prevented from moving to extinguish the blaze quickly.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his Wednesday evening broadcast, said the Ukrainian military had attacked and badly damaged a tanker in the Black Sea, but he did not name the vessel, nor did he specify the type of drones used in the attack.

Local Russian news platforms identified the Ukrainian military as having operated the drones that attacked the tanker.

The US-based shipping information platform Marine Executive , in a Thursday article, said that the fire started in the center of the ship in the cargo tank area and then spread aft down the starboard side. Later that evening, the report said burning oil that had escaped from the tanker’s holds was visible on the water, beneath a towering column of smoke.

According to the world civilian vessel tracking group MarineTraffic, the last time the Aframax Rio turned on its transponder was Oct. 5 off the coast of Georgia, and since then its location has not been visible to satellite tracking. Its registered owner is Rio Enterprises SA, a Marshall Islands company.

The Greek news platform Protothema , in its Wednesday article, reported the tanker “is linked to Andreas Hadjiyiannis’ Hellenic Tankers.” As of Thursday, no major ship tracking platform showed the ship’s location.

Marine tracking platforms showed past port destinations for the vessel included Sapsun, Turkey and Sika, India.

According to Kyiv, both countries help Russia evade sanctions by receiving shadow tankers loaded with Russian crude, which is then refined into legitimate product not subject to sanctions.

The Black Sea shipping tracker Blackseanews.net showed the vessel’s operator as Hellenic Tankers Co LTD, an Athens-headquartered business, and its last officially recorded voyage as from Russia’s Novorossiysk port to Saudi Arabia’s Rabigh port in May 2026.

On Sept. 22, Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces (USF), claimed his strike forces had attacked and disabled 300 Russian “shadow-fleet” tankers since July 6, with 134 strikes in the Sea of Azov and 166 in the Black Sea.

The most environmentally damaging Russian shadow fleet tanker sunk in those waters was the Vologaneft-212, which went down in a December 2024 storm near the resort port of Anapa with more than 4,000 tons of heavy fuel oil aboard.

Leaking product souked hundreds of kilometers of resort beaches and sensitive wetlands on the Russian Black Sea coast and in Russia-occupied Crimea. The most intense period of the Black Sea storm season is from late October through March.

A press release from the ship’s declared operator, a Singapore-based company called Executive Ships Management, said all 23 crew members were safe ashore after the drone strike. The company said it was investigating the ship’s current status, including any potential threat it might pose to navigation, waters or the shoreline in the area.

Stefan Korshak is the Kyiv Post Senior Defense Correspondent. He is from Houston Texas, is a Yalie and since the mid-1990s has worked as correspondent/photographer for newswire, newspapers, television and radio. He has reported from five wars but most enjoys doing articles on wildlife and nature. You can read his weekly blog on the Russo-Ukraine War on Facebook, Substack and Medium. His new book on the 2022 Siege of Mariupol is available on Amazon UK and Amazon US .