Ukraine Says Black Sea Platforms Used by Russian Forces Captured

Ukraine’s military intelligence service said its forces regained control of several drilling platforms in the Black Sea that were used by Russia for stationing helicopters and radar activity. 

Special forces units seized a stockpile of helicopter ammunition and a Neva radar system used to track naval movements from the platforms off Crimea’s coast, the Defense Ministry’s GUR spy agency said in a statement on Monday. A Russian Su-30 fighter jet that engaged with Ukrainian forces on boats was damaged and retreated, GUR said. 

The agency said intelligence units carried out a “unique operation” to retake the Petro Godovenets and Ukraina drilling platforms, as well as the Tavryda and Syvash facilities. Russia’s Defense Ministry has made no mention of the operation. 

Ukraine has cited slow advances on the southern front in recent weeks, with the military seeking to break Russian defensive lines and recapture territory. Last month, Ukrainian commandos staged a raid in Russian-occupied Crimea — a symbolic operation on Ukraine’s Aug. 24 Independence Day — in an effort to showcase attacks behind front lines.  

The drilling platforms were purchased and installed in 2011 in area around the Odesa gas field, intended to be part of Ukraine’s oil-and-gas production infrastructure. Russia occupied them in 2015, a year after annexing Crimea from Ukraine, and relocated them closer to the peninsula.