Ukraine's officials have said that its navy and military intelligence carried out a “special operation” overnight with units landing in Crimea. The Defence Ministry Intelligence Service (HUR) posted a video on Thursday, which showed a small boat moving along a coastline at night.
As the country celebrated its 32nd Independence Day, the defence ministry said all objectives of the 'special operations' were achieved without casualties. The ministry also said that "the enemy suffered losses" in a firefight in Olenivka and Mayak, western Crimea. The development comes a day after the death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash. Prigozhin had led a short-lived mutiny against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Ukrainian unit, while there, also raised the national flag. Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. The Kremlin is yet to comment on Ukrainian troops' brief presence in Crimea. According to the HUR, the landing point was the western tip of the Crimean peninsular.
“The enemy suffered losses among personnel, (and) enemy equipment was destroyed,” HUR said, noting that the “state flag flew again in the Ukrainian Crimea,” Al Jazeera reported. Ukraine's President, in a message on social media platform X, wrote, "In this fight, everyone counts. Because the fight is for something that is important to everyone."
Russia launched, what it called a 'special military operation' in Ukraine in February 2022. Ukraine, in June, launched a counteroffensive attempting to reclaim territories Russians captured in the east and south of the country.
In the meantime, Ukraine's intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said recent attacks on Russian airfields had destroyed two TU-22 bombers and damaged two more bombers, Reuters reported.
