Ukraine reports a conflict-laden incident on the Russian-controlled Crimean peninsula: According to official information, Ukrainian special forces arrived on the coast of Crimea in a nighttime operation with jet skis and small boats. The operation, captured on drone footage, was published by the Ukrainian military’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), in which men on jet skis navigate towards the coast in low light conditions and finally get closer to the shore in shallow water.

Ukrainian units dare to make a dangerous landing in Crimea

The “Kyiv Post“ reports that two Ukrainian commando units, “Stuhni” and “Bratsvo”, were involved in this risky operation. Footage would be shown “near the coast of Crimea” in which the men push their watercraft through waist-high water to get to land. Patriotic music and slogans of perseverance accompany the video material shown, and the Ukrainian flag is presented in the hands of the soldiers as a sign of claim and resistance. Ukrainian military spokesman Andrei Yusov emphasized to the Kyiv Post that “our HUR soldiers fought against a significantly larger enemy force” and successfully carried out their tasks.

Russian media accuses Ukraine of deception

Russian information platforms, on the other hand, present this incident completely differently: They speak of a fiasco of the operation and accuse Ukraine of having made the video and possibly producing it earlier to cover up failures in its own coastal attacks. Additionally, Russian media reported on the repelling of a Ukrainian commando attack and the capture of a Ukrainian special agent after a firefight.

But Yusov, asked about the Russian narrative of the capture of a HUR officer, refused to comment to the Kyiv Post on the information disseminated by the Russian side, calling it propaganda. This event intensifies the already tense geopolitical situation and underlines the complex, multidimensional lines of conflict in Ukrainian-Russian relations.