Ukraine halts strikes on oil tankers using Russian Black Sea port

Ukraine has halted strikes on oil tankers using a Russian port in the Black Sea following a request by the US at the end of last month, media reports said Wednesday.

Citing Ukrainian officials and other people familiar with the issue, Financial Times reported that Kyiv halted attacks against oil tankers using the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s (CPC) terminal in the port city of Novorossiysk after US Vice President JD Vance asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to halt the attacks during a call on July 31.

According to the report, the US was “alarmed that Ukraine was further destabilizing oil markets and harming US companies by targeting tankers carrying crude piped from Kazakhstan to a Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal in the Russian port of Novorossiysk.”

It further reported that the officials said Ukraine agreed not to target CPC infrastructure or non-Russian vessels as long as the ships concerned were not under Ukrainian sanctions and were not carrying Russian oil or cargo.

Neither American nor Ukrainian officials have yet commented on the report.

Last month, both Russia and Kazakhstan condemned what they described as Ukrainian drone attacks on vessels loading oil at the CPC marine terminal.

Kyiv has acknowledged such attacks in some instances, stating that its attacks on Russian energy infrastructure seek to deprive Moscow of resources to fund the ongoing Ukraine war.

Earlier this month, Bloomberg also reported, citing a US official, that Kyiv agreed not to target some non-Russian oil tankers and Black Sea infrastructure critical to Kazakh oil exports following talks on July 31 between senior US government leaders and Ukraine’s leadership.

ANEWS wp:paragraph