Silicon Bites Ep272 | News Update - Day 1,377 - 2025-12-01 | Two things went boom, but not in Crimea. Not Sevastopol. We’re 30–40 nautical miles off Turkey’s coast, in supposedly “safe” waters, watching two aging oil tankers from Russia’s sanctions-busting shadow fleet burn in the dark. Beautiful, in a sinister kind of way. Ukraine does not deny it. Sea Baby naval drones. Precision hits. A deliberate punch to the Kremlin’s oil lifeline. But a moral dilemma for Western states that are nominally pro-Ukraine but get squeamish when it treats this like the existential conflict that it is and takes actions it must. Ukraine embraces tough, challenging, dirty, and morally messy problems, and owns the decision and their impacts. The hypocritical and squeamish west labels this escalation. It’s not, but our view on this reality exudes weakness and hypocrisy, as well as a shirking of duty. ----------SOURCES: Kyiv Independent – “‘Successful’ Ukrainian naval drone strike disables 2 Russian shadow fleet tankers, source says” (Nov. 29, 2025)Kyiv Post – “SBU Drones Hit Sanctioned Oil Tankers Off Black Sea Coast” (Nov. 29, 2025)Reuters – “Ukrainian naval drones strike two Russian oil tankers in Black Sea” (Nov. 30, 2025)Associated Press – “Ukraine’s Sea Baby drones hit Russian oil tankers in Black Sea off Turkish coast” & “Turkey condemns Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil tankers off Black Sea coast” (Nov. 29–30, 2025) RBC-Ukraine / UNN – coverage of Turkish Foreign Ministry and Transport Ministry reactions to the Kairos and Virat strikes Lloyd’s List – Oleh Dunda & Ian Ralby, “Shadow ports: how cutting off Russia’s access to maritime trade could help sanctions have real impact” (Nov. 27, 2025) gCaptain – “Two Sanctioned Tankers Catch Fire in Black Sea After Suspected Mine Strikes” (Nov. 28, 2025)Kyiv Post – analysis on Ukraine’s campaign against Russian energy infrastructure and Zelensky’s comments on striking energy facilitiesNaval News / H. I. Sutton – “Vital Russian Supply Lines in Black Sea Cut by Ukrainian Drones” (Mar. 10, 2024) Kyiv Independent, Kyiv Post, RBC-Ukraine, NV – reporting on earlier explosions involving the shadow-fleet tanker Vilamoura in the Mediterranean (June–July 2025) (Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine)----------SILICON CURTAIN LIVE EVENTS - FUNDRAISER CAMPAIGN Events in 2025 - Advocacy for a Ukrainian victory with Silicon Curtainhttps://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extrasOur events of the first half of the year in Lviv, Kyiv and Odesa were a huge success. Now we need to maintain this momentum, and change the tide towards a Ukrainian victory. The Silicon Curtain Roadshow is an ambitious campaign to run a minimum of 12 events in 2025, and potentially many more. Any support you can provide for the fundraising campaign would be gratefully appreciated. https://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extrasWe need to scale up our support for Ukraine, and these events are designed to have a major impact. Your support in making it happen is greatly appreciated. All events will be recorded professionally and published for free on the Silicon Curtain channel. Where possible, we will also live-stream events.https://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extras----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain----------