02 October 2023 , 08:03
668
0
The moment Ukrainian jet ski commandos launched a raid on a Russian electronic warfare station in Crimea has been caught on camera.
In the dead of night on August 24, around 20 soldiers loaded up with guns, grenades and rockets to embark on a daring mission inside occupied Crimea, which Russia has spent years turning into a fortress. They went 125 miles across the sea on jet skis, with each one carrying two Ukrainian frogmen.
Levan, the second in command of the elite special forces regiment of the Timur group, said that he spent two weeks practising the journey on a jet ski before their mission. The aim of the high-risk assault was to destroy a military headquarters.
The view from one of the ships during the mission (Ukrainian Military Intelligence)"Our first target was an electronic warfare station so powerful not even a compass could work within 20 miles of the shore", Borghese, the battalion commander who coordinated the mission on the day, told The Times.
Footage shows the group from the Brotherhood Battalion revving up their jet skis before setting out across the water on an almost impossible mission they didn't believe they would survive. While the unit approached the peninsula, five Ukrainian support ships fired at Russian positions as a diversion tactic. When their boots hit the ground, they were the first Ukrainian troops to set foot on Russian-occupied Crimea in almost a decade.
Russian model killed after calling Putin a 'psychopath' was strangled by her ex
Ukraine's spy chief Kyrylo Budanov also tasked the men to raise a Ukrainian flag on the peninsula for the first time in nearly a decade, the outlet reported. As the jet-ski men got closer to the base housing the electronic warfare station, their goal was to place explosives, depart and detonate. But as they got within 200 metres of their target one of the teams was spotted. A Russian machine gunner opened up in their direction, prompting a 30-minute exchange of fire.
The team had to abandon their original plan and instead destroy the control centre from a distance with anti-tank weapons, the battalion's commander, Borghese, told The Times. They then made a terrifying scramble back to their jet skis, to reach their evacuation ship. By this point, Borghese said, "[they] were really chasing us hard. Four enemy boats came out to intercept us, blocking the retreat to our coastline."
Jet skis fled across the sea to reach occupied Crimea for the attackThe battle raged for hours, with enemy aircraft circling for around five hours. In a spectacular feat, Ukraine lost no men and a few weeks later they managed to obliterate Putin's Black Sea fleet headquarters.
Borghese said: "Our guys are very faithful and the whole operation went like a miracle. There were clouds at dawn, so enemy aviation and their drones couldn’t work well. When we were halfway home, the sun came out and we had good weather." Among those said to have been surprised by the raid's success are British SAS troops and intelligence officers who are believed to be operating on the ground in Ukraine, helping train the country's forces and assisting with planning and strategy.
According to a commander known just as Levan, the Allies initially advised against the jet ski raid, believing that the watercraft would be unable to travel the distance required. During a month of training, they were only able to test the craft on journeys up to 87 miles. He said: "At sea, they know and understand a lot, but even for our British partners this looked like an almost impossible task. Neither the Americans nor the Brits gave us much chance of success."
In a statement after the attack, they claimed it showed their soldiers setting foot in occupied Crimea for the first time in almost a decade, following its 2014 annexation by Russia. It said: "Our state flag flew again in the Ukrainian Crimea,' the ministry claimed after a 'special operation' in which troops had 'engaged in combat."