Global Courant
Russian naval vessels near the Black Sea port of Sevastopol in Crimea on February 16, 2022.REUTERS/Alexey Pavlishak
Ukrainian commandos on jet skis carried out a mission to damage a Russian electronic warfare station in Crimea.
Members of the group told The Times of London how they carried out their secret and daring mission.
The group was also ordered to fly a Ukrainian flag on the peninsula for the first time in a decade.
A unit of Ukrainian commandos stealthily traveled across the Black Sea on jet skis in a daring attack on a Russian electronic warfare station in Crimea, a report said.
A group of about twenty Brotherhood Battalion soldiers carried out the mission on Ukraine’s Independence Day, August 24. The Times of London reported.
Each jet ski carried two Ukrainian frogmen and traveled 200 kilometers across the sea to reach the peninsula.
“Our first target was an electronic warfare station so powerful that even a compass could not operate within 20 miles of the coast,” Borghese, the battalion commander who coordinated the mission that day, told The Times.
The electronic warfare station had thwarted drone attacks and tracked British Storm Shadow missiles.
Levan, the second-in-command of the elite special forces regiment the Timur Group, told The Times that he spent two weeks practicing the journey on a jet ski before their mission.
As the unit approached the peninsula, five Ukrainian support ships fired on Russian positions as a diversionary tactic, The Times said.
The original plan was to plant explosives at the site before leaving, but the soldiers were spotted and had to resort to their backup plan and instead carry out attacks with anti-tank weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, Borghese told The Times.
The commandos must be “combat swimmers” with a “faith in God”
The Timur group was also ordered by Ukrainian spy chief Kyrylo Budanov to raise a Ukrainian flag on the peninsula for the first time in almost a decade, The Times reported.
At the time, the Ukrainian intelligence service GUR said that a successful mission had been carried out destroying enemy equipment, and that the “state flag was once again flying in Ukraine’s Crimea.”
After the attack, Russian forces pursued the Ukrainian soldiers with fighter jets and Raptor patrol boats, leading to a quick and dramatic evacuation.
“It was an hours-long battle between all these modern defense systems and aviation,” Levan said.
The unit’s name refers to a religious aspect of its mission. The recruitment posters appeal to “combat swimmers” with a “faith in God,” according to The Times.
Focused on Crimea
Smoke rises from the shipyard reportedly hit by a Ukrainian missile attack in Sevastopol, Crimea, in this still image from the video taken on September 13, 2023.REUTERS TV via REUTERS
In recent weeks, Ukraine has stepped up its policy attacks on the Crimean Peninsula, strikingly different bases of The Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Levan claims that his group’s mission was the catalyst for the subsequent attacks.
“I am proud of my boys, the courage of our fighters and their incredible physical training. You can see that after we landed on the peninsula, a lot of interesting things started happening there. I can tell you that this mission all worked to make the enemy more vulnerable,” Levan said.
“We now have the resources to plan and execute even larger operations. There is much more to come.”
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