Vance Asked Zelensky To Halt Ukraine Drone Strikes On Russian Oil Tankers
Ukraine has halted an intensive drone strike campaign against oil tankers at Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk after US Vice President JD Vance asked President Volodymyr Zelensky to stop, according to the Financial Times. The request was made during a July 31 phone call between the two leaders.
The concern in Washington was that Ukraine's strikes were destabilizing global oil markets and causing direct financial harm to major US companies - specifically Chevron and ExxonMobil, which hold significant stakes in Kazakhstan's Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC).
Ukrainian drone strikes had taken out as much as a fifth of CPC oil loadings during July alone, according to four sources familiar with the data. This led to a 14 percent drop in Kazakhstan's oil production in July compared to June.