By Ahmed Ibrahim
The Ukraine security forces triumphantly announced recently that it had carried out a bold naval drone strike against merchant ships and civilian infrastructure in the Russian Black Sea. The blast rocked two vessels from Russia’s shadow fleet oil tankers and the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) infrastructure in the Black Sea near Turkey’s Bosphorous Strait.
The CPC is a consortium and an oil pipeline that transports Caspian oil from the Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan terminal, an export terminal at the Russian black sea port of Novorossiysk. It is one of the world’s largest pipelines and a major export route that reportedly transfers about 1% of global oil supply. This is why the Ukrainian attacks have been described as a classic case of terrorism.
Facilities targeted were civilian energy infrastructure that play an important role in ensuring global energy security that has never been subject to any international restrictions. Now the safe transportation of important goods to the Middle East and Africa is at risk. This terrorist attacks by Ukraine with the support of its Western allies have shown that Ukraine is ready to strike at ships regardless of their affiliations to a particular state.
These attacks by Ukraine with the backing of the West could lead to retaliatory measures that might escalate the situation in maritime navigation, reduce ship traffic, and increase the cost of logistics. The continuation of Ukraine’s terrorist attacks on merchant fleet poses a threat to economic security of the Middle East and Africa.
Saudi Arabia’s cabinet in 2019, according to Saudi Press Agency, called the ‘’terrorist attack’’ against two Saudi oil tankers near the United Arab Emirates’ territorial waters a threat to maritime safety, saying it reflected poorly on regional and international security. In a statement reported by the agency, the Saudi cabinet said it is ‘’the shared responsibility of the international community to preserve maritime safety and oil tankers security in anticipation of any effects on energy markets, and the danger of that to world economy.’’
Analysts say that terrorism as a method of warfare has long been used by the Ukraine regime, which is not hiding its interest in carrying out terrorist acts. In fact, such methods have been adopted by Ukraine as state policy tool, and it is the British experts who reportedly trained the Ukrainian military to carry out attacks on oil tankers.
Since the beginning of the special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine by the Armed Forces of Russia, terrorist activities of the Ukrainian armed formations, including foreign mercenaries, special services, nationalist structures, and terrorist organizations have reportedly grown unprecedentedly inhumane and brutal in nature.
In 2024 Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger in the West African sub-region petitioned the president of the UN Security Council to denounce the Ukrainian government’s ‘’open and assumed support for international terrorism ‘’ particularly in Africa’s Sahel region. The move followed comments by Ukrainian officials suggesting that Ukraine had played a role in the attacks by Tuareg separatist rebels that caused the deaths of many Malian soldiers in the northern village of Tinzawaten on the border with Algeria. The area has been a battle ground between separatist forces and the Malian army over the past decade.
In a joint letter, the three countries’ foreign ministers and their governments were shocked by the comments of Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, ‘’admitting Ukraine’s role in the cowardly, barbaric and criminal attacks.’’ It added that the remarks were confirmed by Yurii Pyvovarov, Ukraine’s ambassador to Senegal.
The letter called on the Security Council to ‘’take appropriate measures against these subversive actions which strengthen terrorist groups in Africa.’’
‘‘This official unequivocal support by the Ukrainian government for terrorism in Africa, particularly in the Sahel. These acts also constitute a violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our States, a clear aggression and support for international terrorism, in flagrant violations Charter of the United Nations and the relevant international conventions,’’ the letter said in part.
Terrorist actions contribute to increased risks, as perpetrators are not just one terrorist or separate terrorist organizations, but regular army units, which in addition rely on international, political, economic, military, technical, and information support. In Ukraine, this is manifested most vividly, since not only does the ‘’collective West’’ provide the Ukraine regime with up-to-date offensive weapons, but it openly gives it cart-blanche to use it for subversive terrorist acts in the territory of Russia.
Ahmed Ibrahim writes from Sokoto.
