Vladimir Putin warned that Russia may consider striking the ships of countries supporting Ukraine if a surge in attacks on Moscow's tanker fleet continues, according to local media reports.
There have been at least nine attacks on Russian commercial ships, most of them tankers, in the past year. For the most part, the perpetrators haven't claimed responsibility for the incidents although a person familiar with the matter said Ukraine was behind two strikes last week. There's been a notable surge in the past week, with four such incidents.
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“What the Ukrainian armed forces are doing now is piracy,” Interfax quoted the Russian President as saying.
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He said the first possible countermeasures would be to expand the range of Russian “strikes against port facilities and ships” calling at Ukrainian ports.
“Second, if this continues, we will consider the possibility — I'm not saying we will do this, but we will consider the possibility of retaliatory measures against the vessels of those countries that assist Ukraine in committing these piracy acts,” Putin said.
Brent futures erased an earlier decline of 1.6% to trade little changed in London. Traders have been awaiting indications of whether US efforts to end the war in Ukraine will be successful.
The attacks began ratcheting up late last week, with an attack on a fuel tanker off the coast of Senegal. The manager of that ship said it will cease to trade in Russia.
That was followed by two large oil tankers coming under attack in the Black Sea and then, on Tuesday, a tiny vessel transporting sunflower oil.
If other companies were to grow wary of going to Russia, it could boost the cost of transporting the nation's commodities to global markets.
“The most radical option is to cut Ukraine off from the sea, then piracy will be impossible in principle,” Putin said.
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