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PDB Afternoon Bulletin | December 19th, 2025: Ukraine Blows Up Russian Ship In The Mediterranean & Brown University Killer Found Dead
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The suspect, who is now also linked to the murder of an MIT professor, has been identified and found dead. But key questions about motive, well, they remain unanswered. I'll have the details. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. We've been tracking Ukraine's increasingly aggressive campaign against Russia's so called shadow fleet. That's the armada of tankers that Moscow relies on to quietly move sanctioned oil around the world. And this week, Kyiv crossed an important new threshold. For the first time since the war began, Ukraine struck a Russian shadow fleet tanker operating in the heavily trafficked waters of the Mediterranean Sea, dramatically expanding the geographic scope of its maritime campaign and signaling that no part of Russia's sanctions evasion network is beyond reach. An anonymous official with Ukraine's security service, the sbu, announced a successful strike on Friday, telling Reuters the attack targeted an Oman flagged tanker called the Kendall, which despite its flag, operates as part of Russia's covert oil export system. The vessel was reportedly empty when it was hit by long range explosive laden aerial drones and but sustained critical damage forcing it out of operation. That's according to the SBU official. The source declined, however, to specify when the attack took place or to give the precise location of the tanker. But data from Marine Traffic showed the Kendall in the eastern Mediterranean near Crete as it traveled to a Russian port in the Baltic Sea from the Indian port of Sika. India, as our regular PDB listeners know, remains a major buyer of Russian oil, providing an ongoing financial lifeline to the Kremlin, although those purchases have been squeezed by sanctions imposed from The Trump administration in late October. It also remains unclear how the drones reached their target, though the official said the operation involved multi stage measures. But the official did disclose that the vessel was more than 1,250 miles from Ukraine's borders at the time of the strike, showcasing the vast reach of Kyiv's drone army far beyond the traditional battle space of the Black Sea. And that's what makes this strike so significant. Until now, Ukraine's maritime attacks have largely been concentrated in or near the Black Sea. Using naval drones. In recent weeks, Kyiv has used these small unmanned vessels to hit three shadow fleet tankers, helping to keep sanctioned oil flowing. They have also been used to strike Russian warships, energy infrastructure, and strategic ports. Those strikes alone have already had measurable effects, from crippling individual vessels to. To driving insurance costs sharply higher, making Russian oil exports, of course, more expensive and risky. But the use of aerial systems against Moscow's maritime assets in the Mediterranean, well, that's an unprecedented expansion of Kiev's campaign. It's not Russia's backyard, obviously. It's a global maritime crossroads, one patrolled by NATO navies, commercial shipping giants, and international insurers. By hitting a shadow fleet tanker here, Ukraine is effectively telling Moscow and the market that geography no longer provides safety. The message is, if you're moving Russian oil in violation of sanctions, you're now a target anywhere. As we've been tracking on the pdb, Russia's shadow fleet is central to the Kremlin's war economy. These vessels operate under murky ownership structures, flags of convenience, and often with their tracking systems disabled. Their purpose is not exactly subtle. Evade Western sanctions, sell discounted oil to willing buyers, and funnel hard currency back into Russia's war machine. That money matters to the Kremlin, as oil and gas revenues remain one of Moscow's last reliable sources of revenue. As the conflict, Putin's invasion drags on, and costs climb. Which is why Ukraine has increasingly chosen to fight this war asymmetrically. Rather than trying to match Russia man for man or missile for missiles, Kyiv is focused on attacking the economic arteries that sustain Moscow's war refineries, export terminals, and the tankers themselves. Just last week, for example, Ukrainian drones struck a Lukoil operated offshore oil platform in the Caspian Sea nearly 1,000 miles away from the front lines, halting operations on one of Russia's most important offshore assets. Now, we've already seen the economic ripple effects of Kyiv's intensifying campaign against Russian energy. In recent weeks, insurance premiums for vessels operating near Russian ports have surged and some insurers have pulled back entirely. Analysts have noted that Russia is now being forced to offer steeper discounts on its oil, not because it can't find buyers, but because the costs and risks of moving that oil keep rising. And the Mediterranean strike adds another layer of pressure. Shadow fleet tankers operating in distant waters have long assumed that Ukraine's reach was limited, that once oil left the Black Sea, it was effectively safe. That assumption has now been effectively torpedoed by Ukraine's security service. See what I did there? I used the word torpedoed in a story about hitting a tanker. Yeah, you're welcome. Embarrassingly for Russian President Putin, the announcement of the strike came while he was holding his annual end of year press conference. During the press conference, Putin, with a straight face and apparently no sense of irony, declared that Ukraine is not ready for peace, despite the fact that Kiev has offered up major concessions like abandoning their NATO ambitions. Not to mention that Ukraine's leadership continues to engage with U.S. officials on ironing out a potential ceasefire framework. Putin, who has consistently rebuffed efforts by the Trump administration to negotiate a settlement, claimed that Russia would, quote, love to live in peace next year. Of course Putin would, but only if Ukraine essentially surrenders much of their territory to Moscow and forgoes Western security guarantees. As for Kyiv's strike in the Mediterranean, Putin vowed a response but attempted to downplay its impact, saying Ukraine was attempting to raise insurance premiums, but that their efforts were largely futile and would not significantly disrupt Moscow's oil trade. But the facts, well, they tell a different story. With costs spiking and the pool of international oil buyers shrinking, the Kremlin is. Is an increasingly dire financial straits. Coming up next. After nearly a week, the manhunt for the Brown University shooter has come to an end. 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Welcome back to the Afternoon Bulletin. The manhunt for the Brown University shooter has come to an end with authorities confirming the gunman has been identified and found dead. But the mystery has only deepened as investigators also link the gunman to the murder of an MIT professor earlier this week. Police have identified the suspect as Claudio Nevis Valente, a 48 year old Portuguese national and former Brown student whose body was discovered Thursday night in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire. Authorities say he died of an apparent self inflicted gunshot wound. Authorities said they believe Valente was acting alone when he entered Brown's engineering building during a final exam review session last Saturday and opened fire, killing two students and wounding nine others. Investigators said they recovered two guns on Thursday that were found next to Valente's corpse, including a 9 millimeter pistol they believe was used in the shooting. Now this is where the case takes a strange turn. Two days after the mass shooting at Brown, investigators say Valente killed MIT physicist Nuno Lorero, then at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts. As we reported earlier this week on the pdb, Larero died Tuesday morning at a Boston hospital after he was shot inside his Brooklyn home the night before. So now how are the two shootings connected? Well, authorities have not yet disclosed many details about the evidence linking Valente to Larero's murder, but but said they are sure that they have their man. Prosecutors in Boston say a rental car linked to Valente was seen near Lorero's home and that an IP address associated with the killer's phone accessed the Internet in the area. The two had also reportedly crossed paths decades ago. According to a report from Reuters, Valente and Larrero had attended the same academic program in lisbon, Portugal, between 1995 and 2000. Well, what that relationship amounted to, if anything, remains unclear. Officials said they believe Valente specifically targeted Lorero. While the officials said there is no longer an ongoing threat to the community, many of the most pressing questions remain unanswered. Chief among them, what was his motive? At a press conference Thursday night, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Narona said, quote, I don't think we have any idea why now or why Brown or why these students or why in this classroom. As to how Valente managed to evade authorities for so long, officials said he was relatively sophisticated in hiding his tracks. Prosecutors said he used a phone that was harder to track and avoided using credit cards linked to his name. At one point, he also switched the license plates on his rental car to evade authorities. It's also worth remembering that from the start, the case was hampered by a very thin evidentiary trail. Early on, officials acknowledged the campus had limited surveillance coverage, forcing detectives to lean heavily on public and residential security footage to build a timeline. So after nearly a week long manhunt, how did authorities finally crack the case open? Well, I'm glad you asked. Oddly enough, the breakthrough is largely thanks to a local homeless man with keen eyes who flagged suspicious activity on the day of the Brown shooting, which he later posted to Reddit. The New York Post reports the man known only as John noticed a vehicle with Florida plates that he saw Valente unlock near the Brown campus. He also briefly interacted with Valente, who he said was behaving oddly. Police say his tip blew this case right open and helped steer investigators toward the suspect's trail. It's a reminder that even in an era dominated by advanced forensics and digital tracking, old fashioned observation and of course a willingness to speak up can still play a decisive role. And that, my friends, is the PDB Afternoon bulletin for Friday 19th December. Now if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdb@the first tv.com and of course to listen to the show ad free. While you can do that, just become a premium member of the President's Daily brief by visiting PDB premium.com and finally, of course, today is Friday and we all know what that means. A brand new episode of our extended weekend show, the PDB Situation Report launches tonight at 10pm on the First TV. Of course, you can also catch it in past episodes on our YouTube channel. Please check that out and subscribe. You can find that on YouTube, of course @ President's Daily Brief and of course also on podcast platforms everywhere. I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back over the weekend with the PDB Situation Report. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay.