File image.
Ukraine reportedly deployed drones to strike a Russian cargo ship in the Mediterranean Sea near the Greek island of Crete, according to tracking data, video footage and online reports.
The strike occurred on September 6 as the Lady Mariia, a 7,184-deadweight-ton roll-on/roll-off vessel, transited eastward toward Syria.
Neither Kyiv nor Moscow has officially confirmed the incident, and the full extent of the vessel’s damage remains unknown.
Tracking data placed the Russian-flagged ship in the Mediterranean a day before the attack after it departed the port of Oran in Algeria.
Operated by MG-Flot, the Lady Mariia — formerly known as the Stella-Maria — was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2022. Ukrainian military intelligence maintains that the ship is routinely used to ferry weapons and military hardware between Russian and Syrian ports, though independent verification of its current cargo is pending.
The weekend attack closely mirrors another high-profile Mediterranean interdiction earlier this year. On March 3, the Russian-flagged tanker Arctic Metagaz was severely damaged between Libya and Malta in what was widely suspected to be a Ukrainian sea drone attack.
These distant maritime strikes in the Mediterranean form part of a broader, covert campaign by Kyiv to disrupt Russian shipping.
According to an April investigation by Radio France Internationale, more than 200 Ukrainian officers and specialists, primarily drone experts, had established a presence in western Libya with the approval of the Tripoli-based government led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah.
The personnel operated from three main sites: the Air Force Academy in Misrata, a coastal drone facility near Zawiya adjacent to the Mellitah oil and gas complex, and a coordination location at a brigade headquarters in Tripoli.
The arrangement, reached in late 2025, involved training for Libyan forces in drone operations in exchange for basing access, according to the report.
That reporting was subsequently corroborated by The Associated Press, which cited two Libyan officials saying Ukrainian operatives launched drones from positions in western Libya and were directly responsible for the March strike on the Arctic Metagaz.
One official said the attack originated from a military facility in Tripoli. Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed the details of any Libya deployment.
The attack on Lady Mariia is also rumored to have been carried out from Libya, with video footage suggesting that the ship was attacked by one or more bomber multi-rotor drones possibly launched from an unmanned boat.
Russia, which maintains close relations with the Libyan National Army that controls the east of the country, held Ukraine only responsible for the attack on the Arctic Metagaz. Moscow could, however, press Dbeibah over the latest attack if it was indeed also launched from Libya. Tripoli’s cooperation with Kyiv could backfire against it.
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the kiev nazi junta is a self declared terrorist organization. terrorist organizations have to be destroyed. so the kiev junta has to be destroyed to the ground. starting by the presidential palace. the time to cut the head of the snake is now, then all the tentacles of the snake (incl. in lybia) will eventually but certainly follow suit and decease