By Bruce Beaubouef, Managing Editor
KIEV – Ukrainian special forces have seized the Boyko Towers, oil and gas platforms held by Russia since 2015 in a “unique operation” that could boost attempts to regain control of the Black Sea.
The Boiko Towers comprise two gas production drilling platforms: B312, known as Petro Godovanets (built in 2010), and B319, known as Ukraine (built in 2012).
As reported by the Kyiv Post, footage released by Ukraine’s military intelligence (GUR) showed troops flying the country’s flag from the structures. The oil and gas platforms, located in the northwest part of the Black Sea, had been under Russian control since its annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.
Russia had used them to assert military control over the body of water off Ukraine’s southern coast since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the GUR said in the social media post.
In March 2014, during the Russian invasion of Crimea, the Russian military had seized the Ukrainian drilling platforms Petro Godovanets and Ukraine (the Boyko Towers) while they were still in Ukraine’s territorial waters on the Odesa gas field. The Russians also took control of the self-elevating drilling rigs Tavrida and Syvash.
By December 2015, the drilling platforms had been relocated to the Golitsyn field near the coast of Crimea.
As of 2022, the Russians had equipped each of the four platforms with electronic reconnaissance and combat equipment, including the Neva radar and hydroacoustic systems. This enabled the Russian military to monitor the surface, air, and underwater space in the northwestern part of the sea between Crimea and Odesa.
The recapture is the latest attack in or around Crimea by Ukrainian special forces or fleets of drone boats. British military officials were quoted to say that the platforms could serve “as forward deployment bases, helicopter landing sites, and to position long-range missile systems.”
“For Ukraine, regaining control of the Boyko Towers was of strategic importance and, as a result, Russia lost the ability to use them for military purposes,” GUR said in the video.
09.11.2023
