Moscow’s forces repelled a Ukrainian attempt to seize a Russian jack-up drilling rig in the Black Sea overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.
According to the ministry, Kiev’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) sent 14 American-made Willard Sea Force boats with Ukrainian Navy special ops onboard to capture the ‘Krym-2’ rig. Media reports suggest the rig is located between the Crimean peninsula and the Ukrainian city of Odessa.
In its report, the ministry stated that the Russian military and the Black Sea Fleet sank eight of the boats and killed up to 80 Ukrainian servicemen. The remaining boats managed to escape and did not even make an attempt to return for their wounded soldiers who were left in the water, Moscow claimed.
“Another ‘media operation’ of the Kiev regime in the Black Sea, timed to coincide with the arrival of high-ranking US and EU representatives in Ukraine on September 11, was downed in blood and took the lives of many dozens of Ukrainian servicemen,” the Russian Defense Ministry wrote in its daily update.
The attack comes after Kiev’s forces had previously made similar attempts to capture other Russian drilling rigs in the Black Sea in September of last year and in June 2022. The structures, including the Krym-2, belong to the company Chernomorneftegaz, which was previously part of the Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz, before being nationalized by Russia and registered as a enterprise in Crimea in 2014 when the peninsula ceded from Ukraine and became part of Russia.