970x125
Ukraine’s elite “Ghost” unit attacked a Russian Black Sea fleet, destroying a pair of amphibious war planes for the first time in the war, officials said Monday.
Ukraine’s military intelligence service (HUR) said the Ghosts carried out the operation on Sunday, aiming at Moscow’s naval aviation equipment parked in the occupied Crimea peninsula.
Footage from the strike shows how drones swooped over the military base and slammed into the Be-12 “Chaika” warplanes, with the assault also taking out an Mi-8 helicopter.
“This is the first ever destruction of Be-12 aircraft in history,” the HUR touted on social media.
The Be-12 Chaika (“seagull” in Russia) is a Soviet-era amphibious plane still in use along the Black Sea that can detect and take out enemy submarines.
The HUR did not reveal any more information about the strike in Crimea. The assault could not be independently verified.
The strike comes shortly after Ukraine claimed to have taken out another three Russian Mi-8 choppers and a radar station operating in Crimea.
The weekend assaults mark only the latest in Kyiv’s attacks on Russia’s Black Sea fleet, with Ukrainian soldiers destroying a spate of helicopters, radars and other military equipment earlier this month.
Ukraine has stepped up its attacks against Moscow’s aerial equipment amid the deadly drone barrages Russia deploys daily, with Kyiv finding repeated success in the Black Sea.
In May, a Ukrainian drone was able to take down a Russian Su-30 fighter jet over the Black Sea for the first time.
