Kyiv regains control of an oil platform on the Black Sea

On Monday, Ukraine announced it had returned an oil and gas platform in the Black Sea that had been controlled by Moscow since 2015, following a counter-offensive by Kyiv forces.

“Ukraine has regained control over Vishki Boyka,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense welcomed in a press release published this Monday.

The “unique operation” that allowed the return of the platform, the date of which was not given, was the result of “a fight between Ukrainian special forces on board the boats and a Russian Su-30 combat aircraft,” the Ukrainian ministry added, saying that “the Russian aircraft was shot down and was forced to retreat.”

Ukrainian units “managed to capture valuable trophies: an ammunition depot for helicopters (…), as well as the Neva radar, which allows tracking the movement of ships in the Black Sea,” he said.

The 10-minute video released by Ukrainian military intelligence shows elite units approaching the oil and gas platform in small, fast ships before entering the area and waving the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag.

According to the same source, Russia “has occupied (the platform complex) since 2015 and, with the start of the invasion, began using it for military purposes, namely as a place to land helicopters and place radar equipment.”

In June 2022, Moscow accused Kyiv of shelling this complex of offshore drilling platforms off 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 troops in the Black Sea have increased since mid-July, when Russia abandoned an agreement that would have allowed Ukrainian grain exports despite the war.