Absolutely, trying to avoid an environmental backlash from the greens! They intentionally struck the engine rooms on emptys setting the bunker fuel ablaze and driving up crew prices and insurance costs with pissing off 🇪🇺♻️ the EuroCrats with a big oil slick. It was a totally premeditated shot at M/T's
I was wondering about that too. There are many Ukrainian seamen serving on commercial ships around the world but I don’t think that makes a great maritime tradition for a country that’s only been independent for 35 years.
Varangians? You watched the "Vikings"? Vikings went West. Vikings went East. The Varangians were sort of the Eastern equivalent of Vikings becoming Normans.
Eventually, the Varangians became rulers of the Kievan Rus. and sailed the Black Sea
It was brought up by someone else I follow (YMMV but I thought it was interesting). These attacks on that shadow fleet mean that the end customers can´t rely on Russian oil or its timely delivery. For some, the money saved on cheaper Russian oil may not be worth the difficulties.
If you are interested in the subject you can read up on Worldscale which enables the shipowner to get paid the same amount even when ownership of the oil changes. I like to think of it as a way where demand and supply meet with the least amount of friction.
No, I think the pressure on Russia not to disrupt the Black Sea trade in grain, etc. came from Russia’s friends and allies in Africa, who to a significant extent, depend upon the supply of Ukrainian wheat to feed their people.
If you do it to them . . . they will do it to you. Combat is one thing, and Ukraine is teaching the world how to do it. Commerce Raiding for a country that is so limited: ports available, and ASW aircraft, and ASW combat vessels . . . should not literally POKE THE BEAR! Russia has some pretty capable submarines.
That's why Voenno-Morskie Sily Ukrainy refrained from any kind of targeting civilian shipping. This operation against tankers was undertook by SBU (Ukraine Security Service), with apparently reluctant support by Navy. Sailors are perfectly aware, that it was them who would be suffering retaliation for SBU "brilliant ideas", not SBU operatives.
Only in wild imagination of both sides propaganda. Existential war is not fought with 80% of both sides population being utterly indifferent to what happens on frontlines. Seriously, try to research things a bit deeper than propaganda trumpeting from both sides.
time to: spit on your hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats? Hell I thought that was due against the pirates on the horn of Africa a decade ago. not to mention in the red sea, etc... It's time and past time to eliminate vessels that are assisting in the various wars in the world.
welcome to try boyo. Besides, in case you haven't noted, there's practically no US merchant fleet any longer. (I'm guessing you're not a regular here, so you might not be aware of this.) That leaves you attacking the "Grey funnel line." Go for it.
nothing. Like I said, have at it. Let's see about half the ships coming to the US come from either the PRC or Japan... Please make them allies for a few months. I'll just sit back and eat popcorn.
Long range drones. When does DPRK come up with a knock off of the plucky Kievan using Chinese tech and COTS parts paid by US and do some false flagging in west Pac?
Crude floating around the Black Sea is often Kazakh crude, piped to a Russian port and loaded for sea transport.
Shadow fleet. Almost no Russian ownership and all flagged somewhere else. Seems the definition is "not insured by London".
Kiev is certainly not getting targets that Lloyds' cover!
Is US/EU willing to pay for straight out of 18th century letters of marque?
CDR Sal, great summation of a surprisingly complex situation if you look one layer below the readily visible. As you said: "There is no shortage of people/companies/institutions/nations who will make it clear that they will not let anything get in the way of money and weapons heading into Ukraine for them to fight the Russians, as long as they also have the ability to make money by doing business with the Russians. As an extra bonus, they would like lower insurance rates on their shipping by the open seas not being turned into a war zone." End Quote. (Classic "Have your cake and eat it too" syndrome). Have to wonder, are EU nations still purchasing Russian oil? I know they were, IN QUANTITY. Not sure if that is still the case. The global Military Industrial Complex (several EU members and the U.S.) are also big players in this real-life global corruption "Black List" episode...with real blood and death in each episode.
as I opined some time ago.....Ukraine should have hit Vladivostok long ago, et. al. hit em where they ain't lookin, hit em where it hurts, HARD. until THEY sue for peace. NO DAMN "DEALS"!
They're at war adn they know they are fighting for their lives. Putin's intentions are genocidal. He has stated, openly, that he intend to end the existence of Ukraine as a political entity adn Ukrainians as an ethnicity. He has not been bashful about his intentions.
Have to ask because I don't know. How much of UKR grain shipments end up in Russia? If not directly, via "cutouts" or "grain laundering" port shenanigans?
To put it simply; it's absurd piece of propaganda. Russia have enormous grain production industry. And the Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine weren't exactly agricultural regions. Sure, most Westerners did not understood that Eastern Ukraine was mostly industry and mining.
Never would have happened if our State Dept/CIA wasn't trying to bring NATO up to Russia's border after we said we wouldn't. The main problem the globalists have with Russia is that they won't bend to the globo-homo agenda.
Too bad that even before the attempts to bring Ukraine into the NATO sphere there were Russians screaming murder about Yeltsin's independence decree in December '91. Kinda' predates all the stuff you mentioned.
And perhaps it's not so much bringing NATO to the Russian border as much as her near abroad neighbors trying to avoid becoming her fraternal allies again.
Yep, because they were based on economic & logistical realities. If USSR continued as federation of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan - with stronger internal autonomy, but unified economical politics - the resulting union would be much more stable, prosperous (since economical ties would not be brutally severed) and far less paranoid.
Most of former Warsaw Pact (with some exception) really should shut up & recall that they threw their lot with Nazi, invaded USSR on their own volition, and get what they deserved for that. And some of them - like Hungary - not even have any clashes or conflicts with USSR. They were just worried that unless they support Hitler, he would favor their local rivals in Balcan land squabbles.
Peter Zeihan has gone into that from a defense point of view. The fact that Ukraine, and Europe, have no aspirations in the east make Putin's grasp for empire nothing more than the outworking of Russian paranoia. Ukraine simply wants to be left alone to live life. That is hard to do when you have an imperial scumbag running things next door.
Putin is not rational, no matter how much wishful thinking people engage in.
Retarded take. Russia was entirely rational in seeing a US deep state alligned Ukraine as a threat after the 2014 CIA backed color revolution. Ukraine and Europe are not a threat to Russia without US/NATO.
Russia was perfectly fine with neutral Ukraine for decades - until 2014 revolution brought a clearly pro-Western government, with strong ultra-nationalist lean. That Russia viewed as a threat to its safety and interests.
Many Ukraineans were also, since the mere idea of what was preceived as one and only country being divided into two was almost incomprehensible. Believe me, I knew a bit about that, being half-Russian, half-Ukrainean. More autonomy? Yes, that what majority of Ukraineans wanted then. But total separation with Russia? No, that wasn't what they wanted.
Putin was never fine with it. He worked to install regimes that were very friendly to him, puppets even, adn when Yanukovych screwed up, the poeple rose up against him. Nationalism is a natural occurrence and exists among Russians as well. The only threat such things have to Putin is the threat against his imperial lusts.
The main beefs the globalists have with Russia seem to be: a) they have a lot of desirable resources they covet b) they are mean to gays and transformers.
Which is a shame. Both countries are useless kleptocracies while Ukraine has been the playground for multiple kakistocracies for at least twelve years. Now Kyösti Kallio will be writing the last chapter simply because the illegal land grab by bigger kleptocracy was successful. (Stalin smiles.)
you got that last bit dead right, this does not stop with Ukraine: "As for the former union republics of the USSR situated within Europe, they all, in Dugin's view, (with the exception of Estonia) should be absorbed by Eurasia-Russia. "Belorussia," Dugin asserts flatly, "should be seen as a part of Russia" (377). In similar fashion, Moldova is seen as a part of what Dugin calls "the Russian South" (343).
On the key question of Ukraine, Dugin underlines: "Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning. It has no particular cultural import or universal significance, no geographic uniqueness, no ethnic exclusiveness" (377). "Ukraine as an independent state with certain territorial ambitions," he warns, "represents an enormous danger for all of Eurasia and, without resolving the Ukrainian problem, it is in general senseless to speak about continental politics" (348). And he adds that, "[T]he independent existence of Ukraine (especially within its present borders) can make sense only as a 'sanitary cordon'" (379). However, as we have seen, for Dugin all such "sanitary cordons" are inadmissible.
Dugin speculates that three extreme western regions of Ukraine--Volynia, Galicia, and Trans- Carpathia--heavily populated with Uniates and other Catholics, could be permitted to form an independent "Western Ukrainian Federation." But this area must not under any circumstances be permitted to fall under Atlanticist control (382). With the exception of these three western regions, Ukraine, like Belorussia, is seen as an integral part of Eurasia-Russia.
At one point in his book, Dugin confides that all arrangements made with "the Eurasian bloc of the continental West," headed by Germany, will be merely temporary and provisional in nature. "The maximum task [of the future]," he underscores, "is the 'Finlandization' of all of Europe" (369)." https://tec.fsi.stanford.edu/docs/aleksandr-dugins-foundations-geopolitics
Those were empty.
They still were moving and that takes fuel. Oil on water is oil on water.
Absolutely, trying to avoid an environmental backlash from the greens! They intentionally struck the engine rooms on emptys setting the bunker fuel ablaze and driving up crew prices and insurance costs with pissing off 🇪🇺♻️ the EuroCrats with a big oil slick. It was a totally premeditated shot at M/T's
^without
Love the flag!
"Ukraine has a great maritime tradition"
Excuse me - WHAT?
That has ended.
I was wondering about that too. There are many Ukrainian seamen serving on commercial ships around the world but I don’t think that makes a great maritime tradition for a country that’s only been independent for 35 years.
Exactly. And for most of this 35 years, the Ukrainean Navy wasn't doing anything.
They definitely built some of the big ones in Soviet times. Still not quite the right sentiment, but its something.
Since USSR collapse, Nikolayev become a shadow of its former glory. Its massive shipyards were impossible to sustain on small national base.
I’m convinced that one Russian war goal was access to the Nikolayev yards.
yep!
Varangians? You watched the "Vikings"? Vikings went West. Vikings went East. The Varangians were sort of the Eastern equivalent of Vikings becoming Normans.
Eventually, the Varangians became rulers of the Kievan Rus. and sailed the Black Sea
Varyags, not Varganians. And they have the same commonality with modern Ukraineans as with Russians.
googling Varyags brings this as first choice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians
When you can't win a real war, win an imaginary one.
It was brought up by someone else I follow (YMMV but I thought it was interesting). These attacks on that shadow fleet mean that the end customers can´t rely on Russian oil or its timely delivery. For some, the money saved on cheaper Russian oil may not be worth the difficulties.
In the crude business it’s not unusual for the end user to change several times while the tanker is at sea. The tanker is a floating warehouse.
Interesting. Thanks for that.
If you are interested in the subject you can read up on Worldscale which enables the shipowner to get paid the same amount even when ownership of the oil changes. I like to think of it as a way where demand and supply meet with the least amount of friction.
Basically it's an attempt to press Russia for a better Ukraine negotiation position.
"What is holding them back?"
The simple risk of Russia doing the same & starting to blow up all ships in Ukraine territorial waters?
Are they not doing that now?
No. Both sides refrain from attack on commercial shipping.
Russia has attacked Ukrainian shipping.
because NATO and the Turks in particular told the Russki not to F with the Ukrainian grain ships
No, I think the pressure on Russia not to disrupt the Black Sea trade in grain, etc. came from Russia’s friends and allies in Africa, who to a significant extent, depend upon the supply of Ukrainian wheat to feed their people.
I suspect Ukrainians look forward to their few hours of electricity so they hear about these "victories"
If you do it to them . . . they will do it to you. Combat is one thing, and Ukraine is teaching the world how to do it. Commerce Raiding for a country that is so limited: ports available, and ASW aircraft, and ASW combat vessels . . . should not literally POKE THE BEAR! Russia has some pretty capable submarines.
That's why Voenno-Morskie Sily Ukrainy refrained from any kind of targeting civilian shipping. This operation against tankers was undertook by SBU (Ukraine Security Service), with apparently reluctant support by Navy. Sailors are perfectly aware, that it was them who would be suffering retaliation for SBU "brilliant ideas", not SBU operatives.
6 remaining undamaged SSKs. More than enough to be a problem in a small area.
It only takes one . . . to ruin your whole day!
"There is an existential war going on."
Only in wild imagination of both sides propaganda. Existential war is not fought with 80% of both sides population being utterly indifferent to what happens on frontlines. Seriously, try to research things a bit deeper than propaganda trumpeting from both sides.
time to: spit on your hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats? Hell I thought that was due against the pirates on the horn of Africa a decade ago. not to mention in the red sea, etc... It's time and past time to eliminate vessels that are assisting in the various wars in the world.
Yeah, let's start with American ones - they support the most wars in the world)
welcome to try boyo. Besides, in case you haven't noted, there's practically no US merchant fleet any longer. (I'm guessing you're not a regular here, so you might not be aware of this.) That leaves you attacking the "Grey funnel line." Go for it.
I'm perfectly aware of this, but what prevents from starting to target US-bound ships?)
nothing. Like I said, have at it. Let's see about half the ships coming to the US come from either the PRC or Japan... Please make them allies for a few months. I'll just sit back and eat popcorn.
The two tankers mentioned in the article were owned by Chinese companies.
The ire of the nation (China, mostly) that owns them? Do you really want the US AND China going after you?
Long range drones. When does DPRK come up with a knock off of the plucky Kievan using Chinese tech and COTS parts paid by US and do some false flagging in west Pac?
Crude floating around the Black Sea is often Kazakh crude, piped to a Russian port and loaded for sea transport.
Shadow fleet. Almost no Russian ownership and all flagged somewhere else. Seems the definition is "not insured by London".
Kiev is certainly not getting targets that Lloyds' cover!
Is US/EU willing to pay for straight out of 18th century letters of marque?
CDR Sal, great summation of a surprisingly complex situation if you look one layer below the readily visible. As you said: "There is no shortage of people/companies/institutions/nations who will make it clear that they will not let anything get in the way of money and weapons heading into Ukraine for them to fight the Russians, as long as they also have the ability to make money by doing business with the Russians. As an extra bonus, they would like lower insurance rates on their shipping by the open seas not being turned into a war zone." End Quote. (Classic "Have your cake and eat it too" syndrome). Have to wonder, are EU nations still purchasing Russian oil? I know they were, IN QUANTITY. Not sure if that is still the case. The global Military Industrial Complex (several EU members and the U.S.) are also big players in this real-life global corruption "Black List" episode...with real blood and death in each episode.
as I opined some time ago.....Ukraine should have hit Vladivostok long ago, et. al. hit em where they ain't lookin, hit em where it hurts, HARD. until THEY sue for peace. NO DAMN "DEALS"!
How you like to war till the last Ukrainean, armchair hero.
Each Ukrainian is one less American.
They're at war adn they know they are fighting for their lives. Putin's intentions are genocidal. He has stated, openly, that he intend to end the existence of Ukraine as a political entity adn Ukrainians as an ethnicity. He has not been bashful about his intentions.
Can it be UKR is worried about interception of their grain shipments?
Have to ask because I don't know. How much of UKR grain shipments end up in Russia? If not directly, via "cutouts" or "grain laundering" port shenanigans?
For what reason Russia - the world number 1 grain exporter - might need it?
For the money. "Why do you rob banks, Mr Sutton?" "Because that's where the money is, kid." Russia has been robbing Ukrainian grain for years now and selling it on the open market - https://neweasterneurope.eu/2025/05/12/russia-is-stealing-ukrainian-grain-it-wants-to-do-so-without-any-restrictions/
To put it simply; it's absurd piece of propaganda. Russia have enormous grain production industry. And the Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine weren't exactly agricultural regions. Sure, most Westerners did not understood that Eastern Ukraine was mostly industry and mining.
Dude, you seriously need to work on your English. There are people there who do a very credible job of it - but not you.
The only propaganda here is what you post. Russia has stolen millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain.
The Russians have stolen millions of tonnes of Ukrainian wheat.
Some, I understand, via “grain laundering.” But Ukrane’s grain sales are a big moneymaker. I suspect they’d be loath to endanger it.
Lots - see below. Russia is a Mafia state...
Pushing the globalist war narrative - sad.
Too bad the illegal land grab by the bigger kleptocracy was successful. Stalin loves ya' baby.
Never would have happened if our State Dept/CIA wasn't trying to bring NATO up to Russia's border after we said we wouldn't. The main problem the globalists have with Russia is that they won't bend to the globo-homo agenda.
Too bad that even before the attempts to bring Ukraine into the NATO sphere there were Russians screaming murder about Yeltsin's independence decree in December '91. Kinda' predates all the stuff you mentioned.
And perhaps it's not so much bringing NATO to the Russian border as much as her near abroad neighbors trying to avoid becoming her fraternal allies again.
It would appear their objections to splitting up the USSR were rational with 20/20 hindsight.
Yep, because they were based on economic & logistical realities. If USSR continued as federation of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan - with stronger internal autonomy, but unified economical politics - the resulting union would be much more stable, prosperous (since economical ties would not be brutally severed) and far less paranoid.
Far less paranoid?
No.
That is hardwired into the Russian people.
Ukraine has had national aspirations for centuries.
The former Warsaw Pact would like a word with you. As would the victims of the post revolution Soviet Union land grabs.
Most of former Warsaw Pact (with some exception) really should shut up & recall that they threw their lot with Nazi, invaded USSR on their own volition, and get what they deserved for that. And some of them - like Hungary - not even have any clashes or conflicts with USSR. They were just worried that unless they support Hitler, he would favor their local rivals in Balcan land squabbles.
Peter Zeihan has gone into that from a defense point of view. The fact that Ukraine, and Europe, have no aspirations in the east make Putin's grasp for empire nothing more than the outworking of Russian paranoia. Ukraine simply wants to be left alone to live life. That is hard to do when you have an imperial scumbag running things next door.
Putin is not rational, no matter how much wishful thinking people engage in.
Retarded take. Russia was entirely rational in seeing a US deep state alligned Ukraine as a threat after the 2014 CIA backed color revolution. Ukraine and Europe are not a threat to Russia without US/NATO.
Russia was perfectly fine with neutral Ukraine for decades - until 2014 revolution brought a clearly pro-Western government, with strong ultra-nationalist lean. That Russia viewed as a threat to its safety and interests.
Many Russians were against Yeltsin's decision to grant Ukraine independence.
Many Ukraineans were also, since the mere idea of what was preceived as one and only country being divided into two was almost incomprehensible. Believe me, I knew a bit about that, being half-Russian, half-Ukrainean. More autonomy? Yes, that what majority of Ukraineans wanted then. But total separation with Russia? No, that wasn't what they wanted.
Putin was never fine with it. He worked to install regimes that were very friendly to him, puppets even, adn when Yanukovych screwed up, the poeple rose up against him. Nationalism is a natural occurrence and exists among Russians as well. The only threat such things have to Putin is the threat against his imperial lusts.
Yeah...too bad that Russia's bad behavior in Eastern Europe started with not actually evacuating Moldova in the early '90s.
Your dog won't hunt.
Do you miss the cold war?
Nope. I wasn't born when it ended.
I just know that your "poor, innocent Russia, so put upon by the dastardly Westerners" narrative ignores a lot of history.
The main beefs the globalists have with Russia seem to be: a) they have a lot of desirable resources they covet b) they are mean to gays and transformers.
Try Transnistria. Putin still has troops there.
Exactly what I was referencing.
Yes.
Too little, too late.
Which is a shame. Both countries are useless kleptocracies while Ukraine has been the playground for multiple kakistocracies for at least twelve years. Now Kyösti Kallio will be writing the last chapter simply because the illegal land grab by bigger kleptocracy was successful. (Stalin smiles.)
Let the EU put their armies on the ground.
you got that last bit dead right, this does not stop with Ukraine: "As for the former union republics of the USSR situated within Europe, they all, in Dugin's view, (with the exception of Estonia) should be absorbed by Eurasia-Russia. "Belorussia," Dugin asserts flatly, "should be seen as a part of Russia" (377). In similar fashion, Moldova is seen as a part of what Dugin calls "the Russian South" (343).
On the key question of Ukraine, Dugin underlines: "Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning. It has no particular cultural import or universal significance, no geographic uniqueness, no ethnic exclusiveness" (377). "Ukraine as an independent state with certain territorial ambitions," he warns, "represents an enormous danger for all of Eurasia and, without resolving the Ukrainian problem, it is in general senseless to speak about continental politics" (348). And he adds that, "[T]he independent existence of Ukraine (especially within its present borders) can make sense only as a 'sanitary cordon'" (379). However, as we have seen, for Dugin all such "sanitary cordons" are inadmissible.
Dugin speculates that three extreme western regions of Ukraine--Volynia, Galicia, and Trans- Carpathia--heavily populated with Uniates and other Catholics, could be permitted to form an independent "Western Ukrainian Federation." But this area must not under any circumstances be permitted to fall under Atlanticist control (382). With the exception of these three western regions, Ukraine, like Belorussia, is seen as an integral part of Eurasia-Russia.
At one point in his book, Dugin confides that all arrangements made with "the Eurasian bloc of the continental West," headed by Germany, will be merely temporary and provisional in nature. "The maximum task [of the future]," he underscores, "is the 'Finlandization' of all of Europe" (369)." https://tec.fsi.stanford.edu/docs/aleksandr-dugins-foundations-geopolitics
Seriously? You are citing Dugin as serious source? What next, "Protocols of Elders of Zion"?
Yep, seriously, and you're pushing the Russian propaganda line like the American useful fools - but you're a native - what bureau do you work for?
The difference is that Ukraine has been working to cut back the corruption.
Oh the year was 2028/how I wish I was in Kracow now/when a Letter of Marque from Kiev/came to the scummiest vessel I've ever seen...
My first reaction is "Cool!"....then I thought about it.
Attacking a Gambia (or other) flagged ship? Wouldn't that be an act of war, and/or piracy?
Attacking Russian flagged ships? After the first day or two, how many would still be Russian flagged?
The absolute majority of those ships are neutral-flagged.
Yep.
The absolute majority of the entire world's merchant fleet is registered under "Flag of Convenience" clauses.
Your point?