Russia Closes Key Maritime Routes to Civilian Traffic Due to Ukrainian Drone Offensive Hitting 78 Ships

RedState 

Over the previous five days, 76 Russian ships have been attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned surface vehicles. This has succeeded in virtually isolating Crimea and the illegally occupied areas of Ukraine from Russia and may be on the verge of precipitating a humanitarian disaster in Crimea as water, electricity, and food are about to become scarce.

Of the 76 targeted ships, 28 were attacked Friday night. This indicates a coherent strategic campaign rather than a one-off happening.

To fully understand the larger picture, we need to back off several months.

The first part of the campaign was designed to shut down Russian land lines of communication into occupied Ukraine. This has been a work in progress going back a year. Still, it began in earnest around April 2026 with concentrated UAV attacks on rail lines and bridges feeding into Crimea (e.g., the Chongar and Genichesk crossings), key highways (M-14, M-18 highways), logistics hubs, and vehicle convoys in occupied Ukraine and in Russian territory bordering Ukraine.

This timeline shows that bridge and rail strikes really took off in June.

Previously, dropping bridges had been an occasional happening using scarce Western-supplied weapons or special forces. The spring-summer campaign, though, relied on UAVs carrying rather substantial warheads, and every bridge, no matter the size, was a target. Each of these bridges made a modest contribution to supplying Russian forces, but targeting all of them in a fairly short period of time effectively shut down land LOCs.

Simultaneously, Ukrainian drone swarms were prowling over 50 miles behind the front lines searching for anything moving.

The annihilation of bridges into Ukraine and the genocide of Russia's commercial truck fleet, particularly tankers, forced Russia to shift to supplying occupied Ukraine and Crimea by ship.

Between July 6–10, Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces claimed 48 vessel strikes in 120 hours, including numerous oil tankers, cargo ships, ferries, and tugs. 

The 28 hits overnight on July 11 pushed the total to at least 76. Video shows that the strikes focused on engine rooms, bridges, and, in the case of tankers, fuel-handling machinery, disabling the vessels without sinking them. These disabled vessels are no longer mission-capable, but they will occupy port space and require resources for repair, thereby clogging ports and routes. 

As a result, Russia has suspended all sea traffic through the Kerch Strait and in the Sea of Azov, effectively shutting down Russian wheat exports.

Russia's inability to counter the Ukrainian drone threat has led to about 1/3 of its oil refineries being out of production, a halt in grain exports, and Russian front-line troops going without supplies.