Ukrainian saboteurs used inflatable boats and planned attacks on the tourist infrastructure of Crimea
New details of the story of the penetration of armed Ukrainian saboteurs into Crimea were presented by the Kommersant newspaper, citing its own sources in the Russian special services.
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Sources told the publication that on the night of August 7, “a group of seven armed people, who were dressed in Soviet-style camouflages, were transported across the Perekop Bay in inflatable boats and landed in the Armyansk area.”
“This group somehow managed to bypass the border posts, but a couple of kilometers from the coast the saboteurs were discovered by a group of FSB Vympel special forces officers who participated in covering a difficult section of the border,” says Kommersant. “There were only three Vympels, so before trying to detain the violators, they called the border guards for help. While they were getting to the special forces, a shootout broke out between them and the saboteurs. During it, one of the special forces was fatally wounded. Two of his opponents were also killed. The remaining five were blocked and taken alive.”
Most of the detainees turned out to be residents of Crimea, and some had Russian passports with them, the authenticity of which has yet to be established. The detainees admitted that they collaborated with the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, where they received sabotage training, and were part of one of several groups sent by Ukrainian intelligence to Crimea.
“According to them, they did not intend to carry out terrorist attacks against the leaders of the republic or at its industrial facilities,” the publication notes. – The target of the attacks was the tourism business on the peninsula. It was planned to organize a series of small explosions at various points of the resort, which should not lead to the death of people, but would cause panic among vacationers and ultimately “kill tourism,” as Kommersant’s interlocutor put it.
The detainees also said that a second group was supposed to deliver the explosives via a different route.
“While the operation to detain her was being prepared, information about the shootout in the Armyansk area hit the local media,” the newspaper continues. “Perhaps the saboteurs learned from them about the problems that arose with the first group and hid. In any case, the search operation, which was carried out all day on August 7, and involved not only ground forces, but also helicopters and drones, did not bring any results.
Paratroopers from the 8th Airborne Assault Regiment managed to detect the saboteurs on the night of August 247th. They were sent to the north of Crimea to strengthen anti-terrorist measures. The group was discovered when they were heading to the shore of Sivash, hoping to cross the Dead Sea to Ukraine. In the darkness, a firefight broke out between the paratroopers and the saboteurs, in which both sides suffered losses. Several paratroopers were wounded. One of them – a bullet hit him in the neck above his bulletproof vest – was killed.”
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