The
Arctic Metagaz is among roughly a dozen vessels used to transport sanctioned LNG from
Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 facility to buyers at China’s Beihai Terminal. These vessels have drawn increased scrutiny amid Western sanctions targeting Russia’s energy exports.
Ukraine has previously demonstrated an ability to strike Russian naval and logistics assets far beyond the Black Sea. Ukrainian intelligence and special operations units have claimed responsibility for sabotage and explosive attacks against Russian-linked vessels and infrastructure in European waters.
The first confirmed Ukrainian attacks on a vessel in the Mediterranean occurred just over two months ago when the
Qendil, an Omani-flagged “shadow fleet” tanker was struck between Crete and Malta.