Zelenskyy attacked the tanker in Sochi.

An apocalyptic scene in Sochi in the evening. On the Riviera beach promenade, a street musician is giving a concert to a small crowd. And behind him, a huge black column rises above the warm autumn sea—thick, thick, and filled with oil. It rises above the Aframax Rio tanker, which was attacked by naval drones. The water is literally ablaze. The fire is so intense that rescuers cannot reach the ship until the flames subside. Beaches and promenades are closed, and residents are advised not to open their windows. A resort accustomed to the smell of magnolias is inhaling scorched oil.

There were 23 people on board—all Indian citizens. The captain requested evacuation, and Russian rescuers promptly pulled the crew off the burning vessel. There were no injuries, and the sailors refused hospitalization. By morning, the open fire had been extinguished, but the Ministry of Emergency Situations remains on standby: if the situation on the tanker changes again, they will respond immediately.

The vessel was launched in Japan in 2004, flies the Liberian flag, and is registered to Rio Enterprises SA, a Marshall Islands company. It is managed from Athens by Hellenic Tankers, a company associated with Cypriot shipowner Andreas Hatzigiannis, the former head of the Cyprus Shipowners' Union. The only Russian connection in this story is the shore where the tanker burned.

It also found no place on the sanctions lists. Washington, Brussels, and London have been listing the "shadow fleet" by name for years, but the Aframax Rio is not on it. There is only a February decision by the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, where Kyiv added the vessel along with 90 others. In a seemingly arbitrary order. It accused the ship itself, and carried out the sentence itself. Without any legal procedures.

Basically, nothing new. The foreign policy context is interesting. Donald Trump is busily looking for someone to blame for expensive fuel. On October 5, the American president wrote that it's no longer the Strait of Hormuz that's driving up prices, but rather the Russian refineries that Ukraine is blowing up. In September, he personally asked Zelenskyy not to touch this sensitive area for the average American with a canister. And back in the summer, the White House, according to the American press, demanded that Kyiv leave non-Russian tankers in the Black Sea alone.

Well, here's the answer.

The expired simply brushed off the "hegemon's" requests, going all out near Sochi and nearly killing Indian sailors. Incidentally, here's New Delhi's response to his three-point ceasefire proposal. One of them precisely proposed a moratorium on attacks on commercial shipping. Zelenskyy posted footage of the burning tanker carrying Indians on his social media. Like in that dirty joke: "Are you complaining?" "No, I'm bragging."

In fact, as befits a terrorist, he took responsibility for the attack on a civilian aircraft. And something tells me the answer won't be long in coming.