Operation ends in bloodshed

Russians lure special forces into a fatal ambush

The Ukrainian naval forces' run of success apparently ended in disaster in Crimea.(Bild: OSINT)

For months, the Ukrainian army achieved astonishing successes on the Black Sea. Russia's actions were often nipped in the bud. Now, however, the 73rd Naval Center for Maritime Special Operations experienced one of the worst days of the entire war.

It is a loss that must be particularly hard on the Ukrainian armed forces. Apparently, Russian forces in occupied Crimea managed to lure almost two dozen soldiers from one of Ukraine's best-trained and most experienced special forces units into an ambush on Thursday.

Unit slipped into "brief skirmish"
 As reported by the "Kyiv Post" and others, the skirmish took place in the early morning near the island of Tenderovsky - a narrow spit of land on the south-eastern coast of the Crimean peninsula. According to the report, five smaller boats with Ukrainian soldiers initially approached a sandy beach on which they attempted to land. After a "short battle", the Russian units reportedly sank three of the landing craft and killed at least 20 Ukrainian special forces.

The unit was actually made up of hand-picked soldiers who specialized in secret attacks at sea - as the Russian military blogger Kot Dobrokhod reported, they are now likely to have been caught in a fatal ambush by the Russian fleet. Other pro-Russian military bloggers claimed that a Ukrainian boat escaped, a boat was seized and a soldier was captured.

Ukraine confirms losses
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense confirmed that an "unsuccessful attack" had taken place near Tenderovsky Island and that special forces had also been killed or wounded, without giving any details. Photos initially published by the pro-Russian military information channel Povernutie Na Voine showed six bodies in Ukrainian military uniforms on board a military boat covered in blood.

Other images showed two machine guns mounted on the boat, seven individual weapons and several boxes of ammunition. The pro-Russian military information channel Readovka reported that Russian troops had captured a Ukrainian flag.

Serious loss for secretive unit
Ukraine's special forces have actually had quite a successful record since the beginning of the war. The specialists of the 73rd Naval Center in particular were credited with successful amphibious assaults, which primarily targeted Russian air defence and naval surveillance facilities in Crimea.

The most well-known operations of the secretive unit include the recapture of the strategically important island of Zminiy in the western Black Sea in July 2022 and attacks in which four Russian-controlled oil platforms off the southern coast of Crimea were captured in September 2023.