By Admin 
There were explosions in two tankers of Russia’s Shadow Fleet near the Bosphorus Strait of Turkey late on Friday (28 November 2025), after which the ships were burnt to ashes. Regarding this explosion in the Black Sea, Turkey has expressed the possibility of an external attack by missile, drone or any marine vehicle. The names of these two shadow fleet tankers of Russia are Kairos and Virat.
The crew asked for help by shouting ‘mayde-mayde’
A tanker crew member reported the drone attack in an intercepted open-frequency radio distress call. He was talking about unmanned maritime drones. In a video, a crew member can be heard saying, ‘This is Virat. Need help. Drone attack. Mayday.’
“Virata, which was earlier reported to have been attacked by an unmanned aerial vehicle about 35 nautical miles off the Black Sea coast, was attacked again on the morning of November 29,” the Turkish Transport Ministry said on Twitter.
Ukraine took responsibility for the attack
Turkey said, ‘The Russian ship has been attacked by a rocket, mine, missile, drone or any sea ship.’ However, Virat has suffered minor damage and the crew is also healthy. According to the report of news agency AFP, Ukraine has taken responsibility for this attack. All this is happening at a time when there is immense pressure from America to sign the peace deal on Ukraine.
An official of the Security Service of Ukraine said that the joint operation to attack the ships of the Russian Shadow Fleet was carried out by the SBU and the Navy of Ukraine. He said, ‘Looking at the video of the attack, it is clear that both the tankers have suffered serious damage. This will deal a deep blow to Russian oil transportation.
Ukrainians attack two tankers of the Russian shadow fleet.
According to sources, SBU Sea Baby naval drones attacked the two sanctioned oil tankers KAIRO and VIRAT in the Black Sea. It was a joint operation between the SBU’s 13th Main Directorate for Military Counterintelligence… pic.twitter.com/U82scXaM5r
— Jürgen Nauditt 🇩🇪🇺🇦 (@jurgen_nauditt) November 29, 2025
“The modern Sea Baby naval drone successfully targeted Russian ships,” a source in Ukraine’s SBU security service told AFP. He also shared a video that purportedly showed maritime drones moving towards the two ships, followed by explosions.
What is shadow fleet?
According to the VesselFinder website, Russia has been accused of using the shadow fleet to avoid Western sanctions and continue its oil exports. This fleet has become the lifeblood of Russia’s economy after strict restrictions by Western countries on Russia’s oil and gas exports. The AIS (Automatic Identification System) transponders present on these ships are switched off, due to which their tracking system becomes inactive and they disappear from the radar.