An offshore drilling platform in the Black Sea.
On June 20, local time, Crimean regional leader Akshinov posted on his personal social platform that the Ukrainian side attacked the drilling platform of the Black Sea Oil and Gas Company in Crimea, causing at least 3 people to be injured and 7 people to be missing. This is the first time that energy facilities in Crimea have been attacked since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
After the Black Sea drilling platform was bombed, the Crimea Bridge was considered to be the most "coveted" target of the Ukrainian military and political circles, and on the 21st, many Ukrainian generals threatened to "blow up the bridge".
According to tass news agency reported on the 20th, Akshonov said, "On the morning of the 20th, the Ukrainian side launched 3 rounds of missile attacks, hitting 3 drilling platforms. At the time of the incident, a total of 109 people were working on the three rigs. The first platform was the most damaged, with 5 of the 12 workers rescued, 3 of them injured, and search and rescue efforts continuing. There were no casualties on the remaining 2 platforms. I am in contact with the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to try to rescue them. ”
Aksyonov said the rig is still able to deliver natural gas to Crimea normally without the risk of interruption.
Why were the Black Sea rigs blown up? Russia's "Viewpoint" quoted a number of Russian experts as saying that Ukraine decided to attack Russia's drilling platform in the Black Sea at the behest of the United States and with the assistance of NATO, in order to strengthen its position in the possible Russian-Ukrainian negotiations and prove that it can undermine Russia's energy balance and economy.
A week before the attack in Ukraine, U.S. commercial satellites were photographed in the Black Sea waters where the rig is located, followed by Western military forces interfering with and containing the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the newspaper said.
Aerial view of the U.S. Worldview-1 commercial satellite in orbit.
Russia's "Independent" said on the 21st that after the Attack on the Russian Black Sea Drilling Platform, the Crimean Bridge is bound to be the most "coveted" target of the Ukrainian army, and many Ukrainian military and politicians have threatened to blow up the bridge. Ukraine desperately needs some iconic attacks to save face, and infrastructure is undoubtedly the best target.
The Russian military said that on the 19th, it used high-precision cruise missiles to strike a command post of the Ukrainian army, causing the death of more than 50 senior Ukrainian officers, including generals.
The Crimean Bridge is a railway-road dual-use bridge, and the road bridge section was opened in May 2018. At that time, Russian President Vladimir Putin personally drove a Kamas truck and led a convoy of 30 trucks across the bridge. The railway bridge was officially opened in December 2019, and Putin also took the first train across the railway bridge and attended the opening ceremony.
The bridge, which crosses the Kerch Strait and began construction in early 2016, has a total length of 19 kilometers, of which the cross-sea part is 7.5 kilometers, and the total cost of the bridge project is 227 billion rubles (about 25.5 billion yuan), known as Russia's "project of the century".
Crimean Bridge Railway Bridge connecting the Crimean Peninsula to Krasnodar Krai, Russia (aerial photo).
At the beginning of the construction of the Crimean Bridge, Ukraine expressed strong anger and dissatisfaction, when it submitted a petition to the International Tribunal for the Sea to protect its sovereign interests. On the day of the opening of the road bridge, the Ukrainian Security Service also detained Vyshinsky, the head of the website of the "Ukrainian Russian News Agency", as retaliation. In addition, the Ukrainian side had previously threatened to blow up the bridge many times, and forcibly crossed the Kerch Strait on November 25, 2018, launching the "Kerch Strait Crisis".
Regarding the Ukrainian side's mention of blowing up the bridge again on the Black Sea drilling platform, Akshonov guaranteed that the defense of the bridge was "impregnable" and that "as for the Crimean Bridge, I dare say that the protection of the air defense system is more than enough."
However, Independent experts pointed out that there is no anti-missile system that cannot be penetrated. Since NATO countries began to supply new weapons to Ukraine, ukraine's chances of success in carrying out strikes have been constantly improving.
Author: Liu Chang
Editor: Shen Qinhan
Photo: Xinhua News Agency