Ukraine announced this Monday that it had recovered an oil and gas platform in the Black Sea called Vishki Boika, which had been controlled by Moscow since 2015, following a counteroffensive operation by Kiev forces.
“Ukraine has regained control of Vishki Boika,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense welcomed in a statement released this Monday.
The “unique operation” that allowed the recovery of the platform, the date of which has not been announced, was due to “fights between Ukrainian special forces on board ships and a Russian Su-30 fighter jet,” the Ukrainian ministry added, stating that “The Russian plane was hit and had to withdraw.”
The Ukrainian units “managed to seize valuable trophies: a warehouse of ammunition for helicopters (…) and also the ‘Neva’ radar, which makes it possible to follow the movements of ships in the Black Sea,” he stated.
In a 10-minute video released by Ukrainian military intelligence, elite units can be seen approaching the oil and gas platform aboard small, fast boats, before entering the site, brandishing the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag.
According to the same source, Russia “occupied (the platform complex) since 2015 and, with the start of the invasion, began to use it for military purposes, specifically as a landing site for helicopters and the deployment of radar equipment.”
In June 2022, Moscow accused kyiv of having fired on this drilling platform complex. offshoreoff the coast of Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
Local Russian occupation authorities then reported three wounded and seven missing.
Attacks between Ukrainian and Russian forces have increased in the Black Sea since mid-July, when Russia abandoned an agreement allowing the export of Ukrainian grain despite the war.
Source: TSF
