Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces struck 13 more vessels of Russia's shadow fleet overnight on July 18 in the Black and Azov Seas — bringing Operation "Molochka"'s 13-day total to 172 ships.
Overnight on July 18, Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces continued Operation "Molochka," striking 13 more vessels of Russia's shadow fleet in the Black and Azov Seas — eight dry cargo ships, one tanker, one gas carrier, one tugboat and two floating cranes. Volunteers Support Ukraine follows this campaign closely, since it strikes directly at Russia's ability to evade international sanctions by sea.
Operation "Molochka" has been running since July 6, and in that time the Unmanned Systems Forces have disabled 172 vessels in total — 118 in the Sea of Azov and 54 in the Black Sea. Volunteers Support Ukraine finds the scale of this campaign notable: on average, more than a dozen vessels a day are being taken out of action, ships Russia uses to move oil, fuel and other cargo in circumvention of sanctions.
According to the command, the operation's goal isn't to sink vessels or cause oil spills, but to disable their ability to move under their own power — turning them, in the military's words, into "a drifting barge, blind and deaf." Volunteers Support Ukraine highlights this approach because it paralyzes the enemy's logistics while minimizing environmental damage to the Black Sea.
Satellite images taken earlier in the operation near the Kerch Strait captured tankers trailing smoke after strikes — visible confirmation that this is a systematic campaign, not a handful of isolated incidents. Volunteers Support Ukraine notes that independent confirmation like this is exactly what makes the scale reported by Ukrainian command credible.
The operation is carried out by Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, whose command regularly reports on the progress of the campaign against Russia's shadow fleet. Volunteers Support Ukraine values the openness with which the military shares its results, since it lets the public see the real effect of naval drones in action.
Volunteers Support Ukraine helps people affected by the war in whatever way its available resources allow. Every disabled shadow-fleet vessel is one more step toward making this war costlier and harder for the aggressor, and we keep following these results as closely as we follow events on land.
