{"id":27396,"date":"2026-08-12T10:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T10:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/27396\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T10:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T10:22:10","slug":"volodymyr-zelensky-halts-ukraine-drone-strikes-on-black-sea-oil-tankers-after-us-request","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/27396\/","title":{"rendered":"Volodymyr Zelensky halts Ukraine drone strikes on Black Sea oil tankers after US request"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> halted Ukraine\u2019s drone campaign against oil tankers in the Black Sea after a request from US Vice President JD Vance, The Financial Times reported, citing Ukrainian officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the report, Washington was upset that Kyiv was harming US companies by targeting tankers hauling crude oil from Kazakhstan to a Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal in Russia\u2019s Novorossiysk port.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian<\/a> officials and other people familiar with the matter said that Vance asked Zelensky to stop the attacks during a call on July 31. Since that call, Ukraine has not struck tankers in the CPC terminal, officials told the FT.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ukraine agreed to not target non-Russian ships, so long as they were not sanctioned by Ukraine or carrying any Russian cargo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe very carefully listen to our American partners,\u201d one senior Ukrainian official told the FT. The official added that Ukraine established \u201cmechanisms\u201d in response to Vance\u2019s request.<\/p>\n

\"ThisThis photograph shows smoke rising from a civilian cargo ship Golden Leo following an alleged Russian missile strike, on the Black Sea near Odesa on July 19, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (credit: AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES)Drone campaign brought war to Russia, aimed to cut off resources<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s drone campaign on the port aimed to cut off revenue from the Kremlin and bring more of the war to Russia.<\/p>\n

A US official confirmed the FT report and added that the administration views the CPC as a \u201cvital conduit of Kazakhstan-origin energy for European markets that serves as an alternative to Russian energy supplies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notably, US energy companies Chevron and ExxonMobil own stakes in CPC, which is Kazakhstan\u2019s main oil route.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The CPC terminal has reportedly been \u201ca regular part of the conversation with the US and the Kazakh governments\u201d, the Ukrainian official told the FT.<\/p>\n

Notably, this is not the first time the US has requested that Ukraine refrain from hitting US industry interests in Russia.<\/p>\n

In February, former Ukrainian ambassador to the US Olha Stefanishyna received a d\u00e9marche from the US State Department noting its disapproval of Ukrainian strikes on Novorossiysk.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian strikes on the CPC terminal caused turmoil for oil markets, leading Kazakhstan to stop piping oil to the port city and doubling shipping rates.<\/p>\n

Notably, in a July 17 attack, a ship chartered by Exxon was hit in a Ukrainian strike as it was waiting to load.<\/p>\n

The chaos in Novorossiysk came as the US has blockaded the Strait of Hormuz in Iran, which has affected oil markets worldwide and made Kazakh oil all the more vital.<\/p>\n

JD Vance proved to be combative with Zelensky, Ukraine prioritizes US munitions<\/p>\n

Vance<\/a> has notoriously been one of the most combative figures in the trump administration\u2019s handling of the war. He repeatedly berated Zelensky in the Oval Office in 2025, implying that the Ukrainian president was not offering enough gratitude for \u201cthe president who is trying to save your country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vance has gone so far as to say that stopping aid to Ukraine was one of his proudest achievements in his tenure as vice president.<\/p>\n

“It’s one of the things I’m proudest\u2026 we’ve told Europe that if you want to buy weapons, you can, but the US is not buying weapons and sending them to Ukraine anymore,” Vance said in April.<\/p>\n

People familiar with the call told the FT that Zelensky agreed to stopping the strikes on CPC because he is still seeking the license to produce Patriot missiles<\/a> that US President Trump publicly pledged to give him earlier this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zelensky reportedly stressed to Vance that Patriot missiles, along with other interceptors and air defense missiles, were \u201ctop priority\u201d for Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in Russia, Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Moscow\u2019s oil and shipping infrastructure.<\/p>\n

In the month of August alone, Ukrainian drones have hit three Russian oil refineries, an airfield, and a warehouse for Russian shipping giant Wildberries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky halted Ukraine\u2019s drone campaign against oil tankers in the Black Sea after a request…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1138,759,115,2880,38,653,2952,25,4516,1156,993,2077,26,287],"class_list":["post-27396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-black-sea","tag-ceasefire","tag-drone","tag-jd-vance","tag-moscow","tag-oil","tag-patriot-missile","tag-russia","tag-ship","tag-shipping","tag-strike","tag-tanker","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-russia-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}