Ukraine Army strikes drilling rigs in Crimea seized by Russians since 2014 – social media

The relevant statement was made on Telegram by Sergey Aksyonov, the head of Russian occupation authorities in the temporarily occupied Crimea, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“Today, at about 08:00 a.m., enemy units launched a strike on Chornomornaftogaz’s drilling rigs. Twelve people were at these drilling rigs. Five people have been picked up at the moment, three of them injured. The search for the rest continues,” Aksyonov wrote.

Ukrainian Member of Parliament Oleksii Honcharenko also confirmed this information on Telegram, noting that Ukraine’s “missile strike on the drilling rigs slightly hindered Russia’s gas production in Ukraine’s Black Sea”.

A reminder that, in March 2014, during Russia’s intervention into Crimea, the Russian military seized Ukraine’s drilling rigs, Petro Hodovanets and Ukraine (known as ‘Boyko Drilling Rigs’), belonging to Chornomornaftogaz. The drilling rigs were stationed in the territorial waters of Ukraine within the Odesa gas field. In December 2015, they were relocated to the Holitsynske field off the coast of Crimea.

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