Ukrainian forces carried out what Kyiv called a special operation in the annexed Crimean Peninsula, a government spokesman said Thursday. What exactly happened remains unclear.
Andrii Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Directorate of Intelligence, said the agency partnered with Ukraine’s Navy to carry out the operation. Yusov said authorities would not be disclosing all the details surrounding the mission — only that it was a success, there were no Ukrainian casualties and that there were losses on the enemy’s side.
While Yusov declined to offer details, accounts on social media help paint a picture of what happened. According to a channel called “Krym Realii” on the messaging app Telegram, explosions were heard near the village of Mayak on Cape Tarkhankut at about 5 a.m. Other unofficial social media accounts spoke of hearing gunfire near a campsite on the Crimean coast. One said that people had seen two rubber boats close to the shore.
Russian forces are believed to have stationed missiles at various locations on Crimea’s west coast that have been used to target Odesa, a nearby Ukrainian port city on the Black Sea, and other locations.
What’s happening in Crimea: Ukrainian forces have, in recent weeks, stepped up their operations targeting Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russian forces in 2014 in violation of international law, using missiles and sea drones to hit Kremlin targets there.
In an interview with CNN last month, Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Kyiv would continue carrying out attacks on Crimea and the Kerch Bridge that connects it to the Russian mainland.
Ukraine’s military said Wednesday that it had “completely destroyed” a Russian missile system in a village on the same cape where the Thursday special operation took place.
