Ukraine's Special Operations Forces (SSO) reported conducting a joint sabotage operation with a Russian underground resistance movement against an oil pumping station in Yaroslavl Oblast that feeds crude toward Russia's Baltic export terminal, SSO announced on 14 June. The military called it the second coordinated action with the partisan group in one week. Euromaidan Press cannot independently verify the reported damage.

SSO and Black Spark report joint operation on Palkino station

SSO said it conducted "special actions" on the Palkino oil pumping station in Myshkinsky district, Yaroslavl Oblast, in coordination with the Russian underground resistance movement Chornaya Iskra (Black Spark). The Special Operations Forces reported that operators struck "key elements of the enemy's oil transport infrastructure."

Russian underground movement Chernaya Iskra confirmed its participation and called the station "a very important facility." 

"With exports, of course, they'll have to wait. Here in Russia itself, the Hunger Games for gasoline are starting — what exports?" the group wrote.

SSO said this was the second joint operation with the partisan movement this week. On 12 June, SOF and Chernaya Iskra struck the TANECO refinery in Tatarstan, SOF stated. That strike was previously reported by Euromaidan Press as part of a broader overnight raid confirmed by Ukraine's General Staff.

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Striking oil transport infrastructure reduces Russia's capacity to export energy resources and cuts the revenues funding the war against Ukraine, SOF stated.

Euromaidan Press cannot independently verify the report or confirm damage at the Palkino site at this time. NASA's FIRMS thermal monitoring system shows fires continuing at the Rybinsk Rosrezerv oil depot in the same Yaroslavl Oblast after the overnight drone strike on 14 June, but registers no fires in the area of Myshkino over the past month, where Palkino is located. This may mean that any damage caused didn't trigger large fires.

British forces boarded a Cameroon-flagged sanctioned oil tanker of the Russian "shadow fleet" in the English Channel in the early hours of 14 June, the first time the UK has led such an operation itself, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced. The six-hour boarding of the Smyrtos marks the latest European move against the aging tankers Moscow uses to keep its oil flowing past Western sanctions.

A six-hour operation in the English Channel

Royal Marines and specially trained officers from Britain's National Crime Agency boarded the Smyrtos, the UK Ministry of Defence said. Backing the operation were military aircraft, an RAF P-8 surveillance plane, and two Royal Navy ships, HMS Sutherland and HMS Ledbury. The vessel is now anchored off England's southern coast, near the seaside town of Weymouth, and will be watched for any environmental or safety risks as investigations continue.

"In the early hours of this morning, I directed our Armed Forces to intercept a shadow fleet oil tanker attempting to pass through the English Channel," Starmer wrote on X. "This successful operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fueling Putin's war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide."

UK Defense Secretary Dan Jarvis, who took the post last week, said the operation required skill, professionalism, and courage. Moscow leans on the shadow fleet to bankroll its war against Ukraine, he said, and the interception deals a blow to Putin's illegal war.

The ship and its trail

The Smyrtos is a crude oil tanker built in 2009, sailing under the flag of the West African nation of Cameroon, tracking data show. It left the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga on 1 June and sat motionless near the Isle of Portland, off England's south coast, after the boarding. The vessel had previously hauled crude from Russia's Pacific port of Kozmino to China.

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Part of a wider European push

The operation was run in tight cooperation with France, extending the help Britain has lately given its allies. French President Emmanuel Macron said on 1 June that his navy had boarded a sanctioned Russian tanker in the Atlantic with British help. In February, Belgian forces, backed by French helicopters, seized a tanker in the North Sea.

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Britain said it has blacklisted almost 600 shadow-fleet ships, the vessels that move three-quarters of Moscow's sanctioned crude and feed a war chest funding the missiles and drones that hit Ukrainian civilians. Russia's oil-and-gas revenues fell 24% from a year earlier in 2025, the UK Ministry of Defence said, crediting the sanctions.

A single boarding leaves hundreds of tankers still sailing — 184 sanctioned vessels passed through British waters in the weeks after the UK's March threat — but a first British-led interception raises the risk and cost for a fleet whose entire value to Moscow rests on moving oil quietly and without interruption.

Ukrainian drones set a major oil depot ablaze near the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk overnight on 7-8 June 2026, in a strike confirmed by Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS). Residents reported a string of blasts and heavy smoke over the Grushovaya storage site, which feeds Russia's busiest oil-export port. Ukrainian forces hit two more targets in southern Russia the same night.

Drones spark a blaze at Novorossiysk's oil hub

The strike came before dawn. Residents of Novorossiysk, in Russia's Krasnodar Krai, reported about 50 blasts, then heavy smoke over the Grushovaya oil depot. Operators of the SBS's 1st Separate Center, working with Special Operations Forces (SSO) and other units, confirmed the hit. Ukraine's General Staff also confirmed the strike and said a fire broke out, with damage still being assessed. Russian officials claimed no one was hurt.

NASA's FIRMS satellite service detected abnormal heat at the site at 02:48 on 8 June. Ukrainian Telegram channel Exilenova+ began reporting the attack around 3 a.m., posting photos and videos of fire in the mountains above the city. OSINT Telegram channel Falcon insight pinpointed the location. Russian news Telegram channel ASTRA confirmed the burning tank farm from eyewitness footage shot about 11 km away.

What the Grushovaya depot feeds

The Grushovaya site is a transshipment depot for the Sheskharis terminal. Chernomortransneft runs it, under Russia's state pipeline monopoly Transneft. It sits in the Grushovaya Balka tract beyond the Markotkh Ridge, about 12 km from Novorossiysk. The tank farm holds more than 1.2 million m³ of fuel across dozens of tanks, on a site of about 212 hectares. SBS called it one of the largest oil-product stores in the Caucasus.

Novorossiysk is southern Russia's biggest oil-export hub, the Moscow Times reported. The port ships up to 700,000 barrels a day, and its terminals moved 19.8 million tonnes of oil products in 2025. That trade feeds Russia's budget, which bankrolls the war on Ukraine. The port has become a recurring target in Ukraine's strikes on Russia's Black Sea oil logistics.

Volgograd and a coastal radar also hit

The same night, Ukraine's General Staff said its forces struck the Krasny Yar oil-pumping station in Volgograd Oblast, where a fire broke out. Volgograd governor Andrei Bocharov claimed the blaze came from falling drone debris at the Zhirnovsk pumping station and was quickly put out, the Moscow Times reported. Ukrainian forces also hit a Russian radar station near Kabardinka in Krasnodar Krai, according to the General Staff.

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Not the first strike on Novorossiysk's oil chain

Ukrainian forces have hit this infrastructure before. Ukrainian defense outlet Militarnyi reported that drones struck the Grushovaya depot on 23 May 2026, when fire spread across much of the site. Strike drones also hit the Sheskharis terminal on 6 April, damaging oil-metering systems and shut-off valves at the loading berths. ASTRA said the wider complex was attacked in early March, early April, and on 22 May.