Ukraine controls ‘Boyko Towers’ for more than year: navy shares details of drilling platforms return

Dmytro Pletenchuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Navy, shared the information in an interview with Radio Liberty.

"The coastal missile and artillery forces of Ukrainian Navy have been in full control of the part of the Black Sea where the so-called ‘Boyko Towers’ are installed for more than a year," he said.

He noted that Russian warships stopped entering the area after the Vasyl Bekh ship was sunk in June 2022.

According to Pletenchuck, it was difficult to get to the drilling platforms on rubber boats, and the special forces risked their lives because "we assumed that a sabotage group could enter." There was also a danger from the air.

"To get to that distance on rubber boats, you really need to be very tough guys, which is what the Ukrainian intelligence officers are," said Peletnchuk.

The ‘Boyko Towers’ are gas and oil drilling platforms off the coast of Crimea in the Black Sea. Russia occupied them in 2015 and used them for military purposes since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Read more about this here.

On September 11, the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine reported that Ukraine had regained control of the ‘Boyko Towers’, which had been occupied since 2015 by Russia.