At least two oil tankers linked to Russia’s “shadow fleet” damaged in Tuapse port drone strike, OSINT analysts report

At least four oil tankers and a Transneft oil terminal were damaged following a drone attack on the Russian Black Sea port of Tuapse in Krasnodar Krai, according to open source intelligence (OSINT) analysts from the Telegram channels Exilenova+ and Dossier Shpiona (lit. “Dossier of a Spy”). The Insider confirmed that at least two of the affected ships belong to Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of tankers, which transport crude in circumvention of international sanctions.

The attack took place overnight on Nov. 2. Local authorities earlier said that “two foreign civilian vessels” had been damaged but did not name them. The Krasnodar regional crisis center added that drone debris had struck the deck superstructure of one tanker. No casualties were reported.

According to Dossier Shpiona, the damaged vessels are the POLLUX (Panama, IMO: 9243320), CHAI (Liberia, IMO: 9275402), COAST BUSTER (Bahamas, IMO: 9312913), and SATURN I (Russia, IMO: 9655470). Exilenova+ also published a satellite image showing at least two damaged pipelines at Transneft’s oil terminal, along with what appears to be fire damage on one of the tankers.