On Wednesday, April 29, 2026, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the country’s Ministry of Defense announced that the Ukrainian Navy (Viiskovo-Morski Syly Ukrainy) had attacked the Cameroon-flagged tanker/chemical tanker Marquise (IMO 9315745, MMSI 613271604), part of Russia’s Shadow Fleet, in the Black Sea using unmanned surface vessels.
Illustrative photo via the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
The attack on the sanctioned vessel took place this morning using two kamikaze unmanned boats (although the type was not specified, possibly Sea Baby or Magura V5 – editor’s note). At the moment of impact, the vessel was drifting 210 km southeast of the Russian city of Tuapse, without a signal being transmitted from its Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponder, probably waiting to be loaded at sea from another vessel. The strike hit the stern, in the area of the propeller-rudder assembly and the engine room.
Built in 2008, the tanker/chemical tanker Marquise is 184 m long and 27.4 m wide, with a gross tonnage of 23,303 t and a deadweight of 37,662 DWT. It has officially sailed under the Cameroon flag since November 2025. It had previously sailed under the flags of Vanuatu until October 2025, Barbados until November 2024, Gabon until February 2024, Germany until November 2023, Liberia until May 2022 and again until November 2023, and earlier as Chemtrans Leo, Seaways Cape Horn, and Agisilaos under the flag of the Marshall Islands.
According to information on the Shadow Fleet compiled by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (HUR MO) in its War & Sanctions information service, since December 2023, during the period of the G7 and EU embargo and price caps on Russian crude oil and petroleum products, the tanker has been actively involved in the export of crude oil and petroleum products of Russian origin from and to terminals and ports in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
The vessel regularly employs pirate shipping practices, including operating with its AIS system switched off near the Kerch Strait and in ports of the temporarily occupied Crimean Peninsula. In May and June 2025, the tanker called at port terminals on the occupied peninsula, including the ports of Kamysh-Burun and Feodosia.
In August 2024, operating under a charter granted by Tupras Turkiye Petrol Rafinerileri A.S., the tanker transported more than 30,000 metric tons of Russian petroleum products from the Russian port of Tuapse to Turkey. The Tuapse terminal hosts a production facility – comprising the Tuapse oil refinery and a marine terminal – owned by the sanctioned Russian company PJSC Rosneft. Tupras Turkiye Petrol Rafinerileri A.S. was also the shipper of the cargo.
The vessel’s owner is Lidoil DMCC of the United Arab Emirates, whose fleet as of June 30, 2025 also included another tanker, IMO 9266750, which is considered part of Russia’s Shadow Fleet and has been subject to sanctions since May 2025.
In the case of Marquise, sanctions were imposed by the United Kingdom on October 15, 2025, the European Union on October 24, 2025, Switzerland on December 13, 2025, Ukraine on December 13, 2025, New Zealand on February 20, 2026, and Canada on February 19, 2026.
⚡️Сьогодні вранці підрозділом Військово-Морських Сил Збройних Сил України із застосуванням двох МБЕК-камікадзе уражено підсанкційне судно “MARQUISE” (танкер, прапор Камерун, без вантажу, вантажомісткість понад 37 тис.т.). https://t.co/oxPyy4YVpo pic.twitter.com/AF4yFftm11
— Генеральний штаб ЗСУ (@GeneralStaffUA) April 29, 2026
⚡️ Ukrainian Naval Forces struck the sanctioned tanker “MARQUISE” using two naval kamikaze drones.
The vessel was drifting ~210 km southeast of Tuapse, AIS turned off—likely awaiting a covert ship-to-ship transfer.
Sanctions evasion has a cost.— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) April 29, 2026
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