If Ukraine has already conceded a quarter of its territory to the Russian army, the fighting would extend to the sea. Seven people were missing on Monday after the shootings attributed by Moscow to Ukrainian forces against hydrocarbon drilling platforms in the Black Sea, off annexed Crimea, a Russian official said.
“We confirm that there are three wounded and seven missing, we guarantee that the search will continue,” Sergei Aksionov, governor installed by Moscow after the 2014 annexation of Crimea, said on Telegram. Live on Russian television, he had previously claimed that five people had been injured, before revising this toll downwards.
According to him, the shots targeted three drilling platforms of the Chernomorneftegaz company, leading to the evacuation of 94 people present on the spot. “Fifteen soldiers remain to monitor the platforms,” Sergei Aksionov said Monday evening, still on his Telegram account.
No injuries on the other two platforms
This is the first reported strike against offshore hydrocarbon infrastructure in Crimea since the start of Russia’s offensive against Ukraine since late February. According to Sergey Aksionov, searches for the missing are taking place “with the participation of patrol ships and air assets”.
He said the shots hit one of the three platforms in particular. Olga Kovitidi, designated senator from Crimea by Moscow, told the Russian agency Ria Novosti that there were no victims on the other two platforms. The Chernomorneftegaz company, under American sanctions since 2014, operates several gas and oil fields in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
After the annexation of Crimea, the new Russian authorities had nationalized the assets of Chernomorneftegaz, which was before that a subsidiary of the Ukrainian public operator Naftogaz.
This is not the first Ukrainian shot to hit its Russian target in the Black Sea. Already in mid-April, the cruiser Moskva, flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, was sunk with the help of American intelligence. Since the beginning of the conflict, Ukraine has already been accused of having targeted strategic sites of army logistics, even on Russian soil.