KYIV (Reuters) – Ukrainian special forces conducted an amphibious raid on the Russian-occupied Kinburn Spit in the Black Sea’s northwest on Friday, destroying six Russian armoured vehicles and about three dozen personnel, the Ukrainian military intelligence agency said.
Russian forces captured the southern Ukrainian Mykolaiv region’s Kinburn Spit, which juts out into the Black Sea, at the start of their full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Moscow’s military vantage point on the spit is seen as one of the reasons why Ukraine cannot reopen its ports of Mykolaiv and Kherson and export goods from them via its Black Sea shipping corridor.
“As a result of a raid on the Kinburn Spit occupied by the Russians, six units of enemy armoured vehicles were destroyed and about three dozen invaders were eliminated,” the agency said in a statement.
Russia’s defence ministry said the raid was repelled, with some of the Ukrainian forces foundering on mines and the rest gunned down with firearms, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported. Moscow said Kyiv lost 16 “saboteurs” in the operation.
Ukrainian forces conducted a raid of the Russian-occupied Tendra Spit, another Black Sea area to the south of the Kinburn Spit, in an operation announced on Wednesday.
Although Ukrainian forces have been on the back foot for months in the war-torn east, Kyiv has been trying to hit back with long-range strikes as well as conducting more bold attacks.
Its forces launched a surprise offensive into the western Russian region of Kursk this week, making inroads on a new front in the war.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth; editing by Alex Richardson and Giles Elgood)
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