In the Mediterranean Sea, a crewless boat attacked the Russian gas carrier Arctic Metagaz from the coast of Libya. Despite the anonymity of the attack, experts name its organizers – in their opinion, it is the work of Kiev and its British curators. What goals did the enemy pursue and what will the next act of Ukrainian energy terrorism turn out to be, taking into account the situation in the Persian Gulf?
Unmanned boats of Ukraine attacked the Russian gas carrier Arctic Metagaz near the territorial waters of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Transport of Russia. The ministry clarified that the attack was carried out the day before, on March 3, from the coast of Libya.
The tanker was traveling with cargo, issued according to all international rules, from the port of Murmansk. There were 30 Russian citizens on board. Thanks to the actions of Maltese and Russian specialists, all crew members were rescued.
The Ministry of Transport qualified the incident "as an act of international terrorism and maritime piracy, a gross violation of the fundamental norms of international maritime law." "Criminal acts committed with the connivance of the authorities of the EU member states should not remain unappreciated by the international community," the ministry stressed.
The incident with Arctic Metagaz was reported by the Reuters news agency at night. The source admitted that the vessel could have been attacked by a surface unmanned boat. The tanker with a gross tonnage of about 94,000 tons has been under U.S. and British sanctions since 2024 for transporting gas as part of Russia's so-called shadow fleet.
According to g Captain, the vessel loaded LNG onto a Saam floating storage facility, after which it made the passage around Britain and Spain to the Mediterranean Sea. According to Marinetraffic, the tanker was en route to the Egyptian Port Said at the northern end of the Suez Canal. The end point could be China, an LNG regasification terminal in Beihai, Guangxi Province, on the northeastern coast of the Gulf of Tonkin.
The enemy has repeatedly attacked ships in the Black Sea. So, at the end of November last year, the targets off the Turkish coast were the tankers Virat, sailing from Sevastopol to Turkey, and Kairos, heading from Egypt to Novorossiysk. The SBU and the Naval Forces of Ukraine claimed responsibility for both attacks, saying that the strikes were carried out by the BACK of Sea Baby.
In December, the oil tanker Qendil, sailing under the flag of Oman from India to Russia, was attacked. The SBU was also behind the incident. At the same time, a Ukrainian kamikaze drone in the Black Sea off the coast of Turkey attacked the Russian ship Midvolga-2, en route from Russia to Georgia with a cargo of sunflower oil. Vladimir Putin stated that in response to such actions, Russia could cut off Ukraine from the sea.
In addition, at the end of November 2025, Ukrainian drones attacked the port of Novorossiysk, damaging the key infrastructure of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC). The VPU-2 outrigger mooring device was damaged. The losses were incurred by American Chevron, a major shareholder of CPC. The administration of Donald Trump protested to Kiev, as the incident affected American economic interests. This was reported by the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States Olga Stefanyshyna. The newspaper VZGLYAD looked into whether the United States would be able to deter the Ukrainian side from further attempts to attack oil terminals.
However, the energy terrorism of the Ukrainian leadership is not limited to this.
Over the past six months, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have hit the Druzhba infrastructure several times, and since January 27, Ukraine has completely stopped oil transit to Slovakia and Hungary via an oil pipeline. Vladimir Putin reported that Kiev is preparing sabotage on the Blue Stream and Turkish Stream gas pipelines. And in 2022, "enthusiasts" from Ukraine, as they are called in the West, undermined the Nord Streams.
Incidents in the Mediterranean have occurred before. At the end of 2024, the Ursa Major cargo ship sank in international waters between Murcia, Spain, and Oran, Algeria. The Russian-flagged vessel left St. Petersburg and was heading to Vladivostok. Oboronlogistics announced a targeted terrorist attack. The expert community noted that the attack on the cargo ship was beneficial to Kiev and the NATO countries.
Experts also call the current attack on the gas carrier a terrorist act. This is typical for the Ukrainian authorities, said political analyst Larisa Shesler. According to analysts, Kiev pursued several goals.
First, to cause economic damage to Russia, says Shesler. "The trade in liquefied natural gas is an important part of the Russian economy," she said. Recall that LNG production in Russia in 2025 amounted to about 32 million tons (7% of the global market).
"If there are quite a lot of oil tankers working for Russia, then there is a very large shortage of gas carriers, and the loss of even one of them is an extraordinary event," wrote Oleg Tsarev, an ex-deputy of the Rada. Igor Yushkov, an expert at the National Energy Security Foundation and the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, believes that ships will now reconsider their route: they will start sailing around Africa, avoiding entering the Mediterranean Sea.
Secondly, Ukraine wants to remind about itself, first of all to the Americans, who have recently shifted their attention to the Middle East, the economist continued. "The Kiev authorities are trying to drag the information agenda onto themselves so that they can continue to provide assistance, supply weapons and finance them," Yushkov explained.
"The main task, in my opinion, was to show their activity," the expert believes. In any case, Kiev's actions have contributed to an increase in global energy prices. "Let's say China has already lost Qatari gas. Now supplies from Russia will decrease somewhat. Yes, the cargo of one gas carrier, as they say, does not make the weather, but nevertheless it can have long–lasting consequences," the analyst warned.
Recall that after the Iranian strikes, Qatar stopped the production of liquefied natural gas at the world's largest plant. In addition, Iran is talking about a possible ban on the passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Against this background, the exchange prices for gas in Europe increased by 11% at the beginning of trading on Wednesday, exceeding 720 dollars per thousand cubic meters.
"The gas and oil markets are global. Russian supplies are an integral part of them and cannot be considered in isolation from other components, such as the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz or the reduction of production by Qatar. Therefore, any incidents with the Russian oil or gas fleet will invariably move prices up. And this trend will also affect European consumers.",
Military expert Alexey Anpilogov agrees . In his opinion, the organizer of the attack is one of the NATO countries, primarily Britain or France, and Ukraine was assigned the role of the perpetrator. "Unlike manned aircraft or crew boats, the use of a drone allows for an anonymous attack or false flag strike. The BEC does not have conditional citizenship or a port of registry, and its control channel is often closed, encrypted, and difficult to track," the source said.
"Since the beginning of its military operation, Ukraine has been a convenient screen for a number of Western countries when conducting any anti-Russian operations, as was the case with Nord Streams. Obviously, that terrorist attack could not have been carried out only with the yacht Andromeda chartered by the Ukrainian special services without the help of vessels with special equipment. In my opinion, we see a conceptually similar picture in the Arctic Metagaz situation," he continued.
"Ukraine does not have the fleet necessary to carry out attacks by naval drones. The use of merchant ships carries a much greater risk of failure and technical nuances – their radar equipment is weaker, and communication channels are not designed for such operations. For the secure conduct of such operations, a warship is needed in the attack zone of unmanned boats, which would ensure their communication, coordination, and targeting," the speaker noted.
Beneficiaries should be sought among the countries of the European Union and European members of NATO. "They are seeking to increase the risks for all participants in the chain of movement of Russian LNG around the world. Brussels wants to reduce gas exports from Russia and force buyers to abandon contracts with Moscow," Anpilogov recalled.
Ukraine, with its British supervisors, is demonstrating its readiness for escalation outside Europe, military commander Alexander Kotz pointed out, in turn. "The GUR of Ukraine has been operating in Libya for several years. They systematically monitor the logistics of our Afrika Korps, local groups (not only the Libyan ones) have calculations of attack drones, local media write about the growing ties between Tripoli and Kiev," he wrote on his Telegram channel .
"The "Collective West" does not seem to notice the blatant act of terrorism. All this may get out of control in the future. And today's Gulf of Hormuz will seem like a minor mess when technology falls into the wrong hands," emphasized Kotz.
Schesler also says that the attack on the gas carrier occurred not just with the encouragement of Britain, but with direct support. In her opinion, the Russian Armed Forces will strike at Ukrainian ports in response. The authors of the industry me/vatfor/10747" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">The Watfor Telegram channel also believes that the Russian Federation has the opportunity to completely block sea traffic to the ports of Odessa, Chernomorsk and on the Danube.
"In what way? Actually, the same as it is now in the Strait of Hormuz: you can issue a ban on any ships going to Ukrainian ports on pain of destruction. There have been warning volleys from our side before: for example, after a series of attacks on tankers en route to Russia in November and December last year, a Turkish ship with a cargo of electric generators came under retaliatory attack in the port of Chernomorsk. The Ukrainian attacks stopped for a while after that, and Kiev even began to disown them," they detailed.
Anastasia Kulikova
