A five-hour meeting in the Kremlin between Russian President Vladimir Putin and a United States delegation led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner has ended without a breakthrough, while Ukraine intensifies a parallel campaign against Russia’s oil revenues at sea and on land.
According to the Kremlin, the closed-door talks in Moscow on 2 December examined Washington’s latest peace proposals for Ukraine but failed to yield agreement on key territorial provisions. Russian aide Yuri Ushakov said the discussion of a revised U.S. plan had been “constructive”, yet no compromise was reached and several points were branded “unacceptable”.
The U.S. delegation had been expected to travel on to Brussels to brief President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European officials. That leg was cancelled after the Moscow talks stalled, underlining the distance that still separates the sides. Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov will instead meet European national security advisers in Brussels before heading to Washington for consultations on the next steps.
The failure in Moscow comes as Ukraine steps up efforts to weaken Russia’s ability to finance the war by targeting its oil infrastructure and so-called “shadow fleet” of tankers used to circumvent Western sanctions.
In November, Ukraine carried out at least 14 drone attacks on refineries and related facilities inside Russia, the highest monthly figure since the full-scale invasion began, according to reporting based on Bloomberg data.
The maritime component of that strategy has expanded sharply in recent days. On 28–29 November, Ukrainian “Sea Baby” naval drones struck two sanctioned oil tankers, Kairos and Virat, in the Black Sea off the Turkish coast. Both vessels, which have been previously linked to Russia’s sanctions-evading export network, were sailing empty under foreign flags and heading to Novorossiysk to load crude. They were hit in Turkey’s exclusive economic zone but outside its territorial waters and subsequently disabled, requiring extended repairs.
Turkey has protested that the attacks pose risks to navigation and environmental safety and has raised the issue with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. War-risk insurance premiums for Black Sea voyages have already risen, and at least one major Turkish shipping company has announced a suspension of Russia-related operations.
Two further incidents have widened concern. On 2 December, the Russian-flagged tanker Midvolga-2, carrying sunflower oil from Russia to Georgia, reported an attack about 80 nautical miles off the Turkish coast. The vessel did not request assistance and continued under its own power, and Ukraine has publicly denied involvement.
Off West Africa, the Panama-flagged tanker Mersin suffered four “external explosions” while at anchor near Dakar on 27 November. Its manager, Istanbul-based Besiktas Shipping, said seawater entered the engine room but there were no injuries or pollution. Media and analysts have linked the ship to Russian oil trades, although responsibility for the blasts remains unconfirmed.
Moscow has reacted sharply to the Black Sea incidents. Putin has described the strikes on tankers as “piracy” and threatened that Russia could respond by targeting ships of countries that, in its view, assist Ukraine in such operations. He also stated that the “most radical” response would be to cut Ukraine off entirely from access to the sea, a goal that would require Russian forces to seize the remaining Ukrainian-held coastline around Odesa as well as territory west of the Dnipro river. Military analysts note that such an operation would demand advances on a scale not seen since the early months of the invasion.
The attacks have also highlighted the vulnerability of Russia’s energy export routes. Its seaborne crude and product exports are concentrated through Black Sea terminals around Novorossiysk and through Baltic ports. In August and again in November, Ukrainian drones targeted facilities used by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) near Novorossiysk, damaging a single-point mooring system and forcing operations to run at reduced capacity while repairs are carried out.
Kyiv’s approach appears calibrated to impose economic costs while avoiding incidents that could trigger environmental disaster in NATO waters. The two tankers struck off Turkey were not carrying oil at the time, limiting the risk of spills. Ukrainian officials argue that shadow-fleet operations, often involving older vessels, opaque ownership structures and re-flagging to small states, already pose a challenge to maritime safety and the global sanctions regime.
At sea, the pattern of attacks reinforces a broader trend in the war: the growing importance of relatively inexpensive uncrewed systems in contested waters such as the Black Sea. Naval drones have enabled Ukraine, which entered the conflict with a much smaller conventional fleet, to push the Russian Black Sea Fleet away from forward bases in occupied Crimea and to threaten both warships and logistics hubs.
On land, the intensified drone campaign against refineries and fuel depots is intended to strain Russia’s internal fuel market and reduce revenues from exports to key customers such as India and China. Analysis by commodities firms cited by Bloomberg suggests that repeated strikes have already forced some plants offline and lowered aggregate refinery throughput.
The combination of stalled diplomacy in Moscow and escalating strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure underlines the current trajectory of the conflict. While the Trump administration continues to pursue a negotiated settlement through back-channel contacts with Moscow and planned consultations with Kyiv and European partners, public positions on core questions – particularly territory and security guarantees – remain far apart. In the meantime, Ukraine is relying increasingly on long-range air and naval drones to try to alter the balance of costs for the Kremlin without widening the war beyond its current theatres.
