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There is a silver lining to this particular catastrophe. A large fraction of the abandoned tankers are a result of sanctions on Russia. It means they're working. Ukraine cares very much about these ships, having damaged a dozen tankers with their "kinetic sanctions" in the past year. They care because the oil is both a war material and a major source of Russian revenue. More abandoned tankers means a weaker Russia.

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And what is the positive effect here? This gives rise to escalation, harms the environment, and doesn't really help end the war.

At the risk of sounding pedantic, you're (I think, implicitly) claiming that reducing Russian oil revenues doesn't impact their war capabilities. Why would that be the case?

Striking at the economy of the aggressor definitely helps end the war

How can Russia escalate, short of nukes or expanding the war either of Which would be suicide

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