Ukrainian Navy wipes out elite Russian special forces unit on Syvash drilling platform

Anastasia Protz - 3 November, 16:17

The drilling platform. Screenshot from video

The Ukrainian Navy has wiped out an elite Russian special forces unit stationed on the Syvash drilling platform in the Black Sea.

Source: Ukrainian Navy

Details: The Navy reported that in addition to killing the Russian troops, Ukrainian forces destroyed their reconnaissance and surveillance equipment and wiped out the crew of an anti-tank missile system.

The Ukrainian Navy Command also noted that Russian propaganda is attempting to portray this defeat as a victory by circulating footage purporting to show the destruction of a Ukrainian boat by a Lancet drone. The footage in question actually shows the successful use of a Ukrainian Navy kamikaze drone.

Syvash is a jack-up (self-elevating) drilling rig that can drill wells up to 6 km deep. It is owned by Chornomornaftogaz, a Ukrainian state-owned oil and gas company, and is one of the so-called Boiko Towers – oil and gas drilling platforms in the Black Sea off the coast of Crimea.

Russia occupied the Boiko Towers in 2015 and has been using them for military purposes since the start of the full-scale invasion, particularly as helipads and sites for deploying radar systems.

In September 2023, Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) reported that it had brought the Petro Hodovanets, Syvash, Tavryda and Ukraina drilling platforms back under Ukrainian control following a special operation.

Background:

On 22 August 2023, Russia's Defence Ministry claimed that a Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft had "destroyed a US-made Willard Sea Force military speedboat carrying a Ukrainian landing group east of Zmiinyi (Snake) Island in the Black Sea" – a claim that DIU denied as false.
According to DIU, there had been a clash near the so-called Boiko Towers involving a Russian military aircraft and Ukrainian combat boats: a Russian missile landed in the sea, and the Ukrainian troops damaged the Russian warplane, which then flew off "towards the nearest airfield".
UK Defence Intelligence later reported that Ukrainian and Russian forces had been fighting for the Boiko Towers, strategically important Black Sea oil and gas platforms between Crimea and Odesa.
In June 2022, Ukrainian forces struck the Boiko Towers with missiles, causing a fire to break out on the drilling platforms operated by Chornomornaftogaz, which was "nationalised" by the Crimean authorities after the annexation of the peninsula.

Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!