Ukrainian special forces have reportedly struck Russian ships carrying weapons and munitions in another blow to Vladimir Putin’s invasion. According to the Special Operations Forces (SOF) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Telegram, the unit, in cooperation with the « Chernaya Iskra » insurgent movement, conducted a special operation which resulted in a hit of two Russian vessels near the coast of the Republic of Kalmykia in the Caspian Sea, which were transporting weapons and military equipment.
Among the hit vessels were the “Composer Rachmaninov” and “Askar-Sarydzha”, both of which were being used by the Russian Federation for military purposes and are under US sanctions due to their participation in the supply of military cargo between Iran and the Russian Federation. « Special operations forces continue to take asymmetric actions to undermine the offensive capabilities of the Russian army, » the SOF said in its statement.
This strike comes just a day after it was reported that SSU drones had attacked Russian oil production infrastructure in the Caspian Sea for the first time. The target was the Filanovsky oil platform, which belongs to the Lukoil oil company.
According to sources in the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), the drone strike on December 11 halted the operation of more than 20 boreholes and caused significant losses to the Russian oil industry. The platform is located more than 715 miles from Ukraine and approximately 137 miles south of Russia‘s Astrakhan region.
The fields located in the area contain approximately 129 million tons of oil and 30 billion cubic meters of gas. By 2021, Lukoil had already extracted 30 million tons from this site, with an additional six million tons added each year.
The « Chernaya Iskra » insurgent movement, also known as « Black Spark », often works in coordination with Ukraine’s SOF to conduct strikes and sabotage operations against Russian military and infrastructure targets within Russia and Russian-occupied territories.
On September 28, Chernaya Iskra worked with the SOF to destroy a Russian Buk-M3 air defence system and strike a Nebo-U radar station in the Rostov region of Russia. The movement has also been involved in strikes that targeted an Iskander transport-loading vehicle and a Garmon radar station in Russia’s Kursk Oblast.
The movement has also been linked to actions that put oil refineries out of commission, including the Ilsky oil refinery and the Kirishinefteorgsintez refinery.
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