A lone soldier stands at his machine gun, silhouetted against the stars at the helm of a small vessel that appears to be hurtling relentlessly across the waves.
Seconds later, we see footage of a Ukrainian flag being attached to the walls of a single-storey wooden building. Working via torchlight, a group of breathless men whisper instructions, before posing for a brief souvenir photograph.
The 45-second film was shot before dawn on August 24, Ukraine’s independence day, and released to the media by the country’s defence ministry.
In a statement, 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.
‘Our state flag flew again in the Ukrainian Crimea,’ the ministry claimed after a ‘special operation’ in which troops had ‘engaged in combat’, destroying valuable military equipment and killing several enemy personnel.
‘Our state flag flew again in the Ukrainian Crimea,’ the ministry claimed after a ‘special operation’
Six weeks later, the remarkable story behind this intriguing propaganda film can finally be told.
It involved one of the most daring commando raids in modern history, with ten jet skis used to transport 20 Ukrainian frogmen on a 265-mile round trip across a treacherous, storm-tossed stretch of the Black Sea.
Aspects of the caper recall the glory days of the SAS, whose behind-enemy-lines operations in World War II inspired the recent BBC hit Rogue Heroes. Parts also resemble the plot of a Bond movie. Indeed, Ian Fleming’s novel Thunderball was inspired by the exploits of Royal Navy diver Lionel ‘Buster’ Crabb.
The August mission appears to have been co-ordinated by a battalion commander named only as Borghese, who told how his men struck before dawn, pitching up on a beach somewhere near the village of Olenivka, on Crimea’s western tip, shortly before 5am.
Moving in silence, they then crept inland towards a Russian base while five Ukrainian support ships sped along the northern side of the peninsula, firing machine guns and rockets at enemy positions in an effort to create a diversion.
Their original plan had been to place explosives around the facility, an electronic warfare station containing radar equipment and other vital kit, before detonating them once they had safely departed.
But around 200 yards from the target, one of the Ukrainian team was spotted, forcing them instead to take part in a chaotic firefight in which they had to deploy anti-tank weapons and rocket- propelled grenades.
‘We had to capture the control centre, plant explosives and blow it up, but because there was a battle going on we couldn’t approach quietly,’ Borghese told the Times newspaper, adding that they therefore ‘decided simply to destroy the control centre from a distance with anti-tank weapons, damage the antennae and withdraw’.
During the initial battle, which lasted around 30 minutes, the group were able to cause significant damage to the main building and three military vehicles.
Ukraine said the operation had succeeded in destroying valuable military equipment and killing several Russian personnel
During the battle, which lasted around 30 minutes, the group were able to cause significant damage to the main building and three military vehicles
The unit landed at a beach somewhere near the village of Olenivka, on Crimea’s western tip, shortly before 5am
At that point, the group’s leader, named as Levan, gave the order to withdraw. Ten minutes later, they were able to rendezvous at the beach and board their jet skis. It’s unclear whether footage of the Ukrainian flag being raised was taken seconds before they left or earlier in the mission before their cover had been blown.
Either way, getting all 20 men safely home was easier said than done. After all, they were by now being targeted by the combined might of the Russian navy and air force.
The enemy initially dispatched four high-speed Raptor patrol boats to pursue the jet skis. However, they swiftly came across a Ukrainian naval vessel that was supposed to be helping with the evacuation. It turned around and sped back to the mainland, with all four Raptors in hot pursuit.
That left the jet skis alone. But there was a second problem: not only did each machine need to be refuelled twice during the mission — since they have only a limited range — they were also highly vulnerable to air attacks.
Fortunately for Levan’s team, the five Ukrainian support ships that had created an initial diversion returned to the fray and began firing Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, which repeatedly forced the enemy to disengage.
‘The Russian aircraft were over us for four hours, maybe more because they were rotating,’ Levan told the Times. ‘There were a certain number of enemy aircraft that would enter the area, circle, hit different points, then turn around. It was like that for four to five hours non-stop.’
Luck held for the Ukrainians until dawn, at which point the weather lent a helping hand. ‘Our guys are very faithful and the whole operation went like a miracle,’ said Borghese. ‘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.’
All 20 men were therefore able to escape unharmed. Had the mission taken place much earlier, or later, they might have been less fortunate, he added. ‘An hour after the guys stepped ashore a hurricane began which confirms, as always, that God is with us.’
Among those said to have been surprised by the audacious 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.
The fate of Crimea is increasingly seen as strategically crucial
Ukraine’s allies are said to have initially advised against the jet ski raid, believing that the machines were likely to struggle with the distance they would be required to travel
The fact that Western allies were proved wrong was not only a significant PR coup for Ukraine, but has helped open a new and potentially crucial front in the war
According to Levan, allies initially advised against the jet ski raid, believing that the machines were likely to struggle with the distance they would be required to travel. During a month of training, they were only able to test the craft on journeys up to 87 miles, weighing every gram of equipment to increase their fuel economy.
‘At sea, they know and understand a lot, but even for our British partners this looked like an almost impossible task,’ Levan said. ‘Neither the Americans nor the Brits gave us much chance of success.’
The fact that Western allies were proved wrong was not only a significant PR coup for Ukraine, but has helped open a new and potentially crucial front in the war. A fortnight later, follow-up attacks on the Crimean port of Sevastopol saw British-made Storm Shadow missiles hit dry docks which Russia uses to maintain its Black Sea fleet, forcing the facility out of action for months and destroying the Russian submarine Rostov-on-Don and the landing ship Minsk.
The next day, at Yevpatoriya, on the west of the peninsula, missiles struck an air defence installation, with footage of the resulting fireball doing the rounds on social media.
And just over a week ago, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet command headquarters was targeted, with Ukraine claiming to have killed dozens of senior officers.
Such developments matter because the fate of Crimea is increasingly seen as strategically crucial in determining the long-term outcome of the war.
At present, the peninsula provides a base from which Russia can mount persistent air attacks on Ukrainian positions on the mainland. Halting those attacks would make it significantly harder for occupying troops to defend their front lines.
Importantly, Ukraine last week unveiled a 20 ft long underwater kamikaze drone called Marichka. The newly-designed torpedo, which carries 450 kg of explosives, is set to be used to target the £3 billion Kerch Bridge, which Vladimir Putin had built following the annexation to allow goods and military hardware to flow between Russia and Crimea.
Its existence has allowed Russians to spend years turning the region into a fortress, protected by six air bases as well as a fleet of patrol boats, plus an extensive network of mines and submarine nets.
But as we now know, that isn’t enough to stop a group of Ukrainian commandos in possession of very fast jet skis and an awful lot of derring-do.
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