Ukraine Claims to Have Retaken Oil and Gas Platforms in the Black Sea

Ukraine stated on Monday that it had taken management of a number of oil and gasoline platforms within the Black Sea, after a sequence of clashes with Russian aerial and maritime forces within the waters between Odesa and the occupied Crimean Peninsula.

The Ukrainian army intelligence company launched a 13-minute video together with fight footage, drone movies and interviews with unidentified particular forces troopers describing what they stated was “a novel operation to ascertain management” over offshore rigs often known as the Boyko Towers that Russia seized in 2015.

Ukraine’s declare couldn’t be independently verified, and the Russian Ministry of Protection 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 means to venture energy within 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. Navy analysts and the British military intelligence agency say Russia has put in radar installations and long-range missile programs used to assault Ukraine and defend towards strikes on Russian installations in Crimea.

Ukraine stepped up its marketing campaign to drive the Russians from the platforms this summer season, in accordance with each Russian and Ukrainian accounts.

In a skirmish final month, Russia stated that certainly one of its fighter jets destroyed a high-speed army boat carrying Ukrainian troops. Ukraine’s army intelligence supplied a distinct model of occasions, saying the Russian fighter jet had come underneath hearth and was pressured to retreat.

Within the video launched on Monday, Ukrainian forces confirmed what they stated had been “trophies” from the operation, together with a stockpile of helicopter munitions and a radar system that they stated can observe the motion of ships. And so they claimed they’d moved nearer to attaining their goal of reclaiming Crimea.

Anastasia Kuznietsova contributed reporting.