Ukraine mentioned on Monday that it had taken management of a number of oil and fuel platforms in the Black Sea, after a sequence of clashes with Russian aerial and maritime forces in the waters between Odesa and the occupied Crimean Peninsula.
The Ukrainian navy intelligence company launched a 13-minute video together with fight footage, drone movies and interviews with unidentified particular forces troopers describing what they mentioned was “a unique operation to establish control” over offshore rigs generally known as the Boyko Towers that Russia seized in 2015.
Ukraine’s declare couldn’t be independently verified, and the Russian Ministry of Defense didn’t instantly remark.
Like close by Snake Island, a speck of land south of Odesa, the offshore platforms play a task in Russia’s capability to undertaking energy in the Black Sea, the place the Kremlin has strangled the Ukrainian economic system and wreaked havoc with international meals provides with a de facto naval blockade of Ukrainian ports.
The Russians have used the drilling platforms as ahead deployment bases and helicopter touchdown websites — basically floating bases. Military analysts and the British military intelligence agency say Russia has put in radar installations and long-range missile techniques used to assault Ukraine and defend in opposition to strikes on Russian installations in Crimea.
Ukraine stepped up its marketing campaign to drive the Russians from the platforms this summer time, in accordance to each Russian and Ukrainian accounts.
In a skirmish final month, Russia mentioned that one in all its fighter jets destroyed a high-speed navy boat carrying Ukrainian troops. Ukraine’s navy intelligence supplied a distinct model of occasions, saying the Russian fighter jet had come beneath fireplace and was pressured to retreat.
In the video launched on Monday, Ukrainian forces confirmed what they mentioned had been “trophies” from the operation, together with a stockpile of helicopter munitions and a radar system that they mentioned can monitor the motion of ships. And they claimed they’d moved nearer to attaining their goal of reclaiming Crimea.
Anastasia Kuznietsova contributed reporting.