Ukraine Claims to Recapture Black Sea Oil Platforms Seized during Crimea’s Annexation

The Ukrainian military said Monday that it recaptured strategic gas and oil drilling platforms from Russia in the Black Sea and claimed gains in occupied areas near Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine left in ruins after the war's longest and deadliest fighting.

The recapture of the so-called Boyko Towers platforms provides an energy source and takes back an asset that Russia seized in 2015 and used to launch helicopters, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said.

“Russia has been deprived of the ability to fully control the waters of the Black Sea, and this makes Ukraine many steps closer to regaining Crimea,” the Main Intelligence Directorate said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to do all he can to bring back Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and has urged international allies to support the effort.

Ukraine's reported battlefront gains, which could not be independently confirmed, came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was on a train headed for Russia for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The meeting announced by the two leaders' countries could include discussions of North Korea providing arms to restock Russia’s dwindling arsenal.

US officials released intelligence last week indicating that North Korea and Russia were arranging a Putin-Kim meeting for sometime this month as they expand cooperation in the face of deepening confrontations with the United States.

In other developments, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made an unannounced visit to Kyiv, Ukraine's capital. She promised support for Ukraine’s path toward European Union membership while calling for additional reforms in the country.

“With enormous courage and determination, Ukraine is also defending the freedom of all of us,” Baerbock said in a statement released by her ministry. “In the same way that Ukraine stands up for us, it can also count on us.”

Baerbock also pledged continued military, economic, and humanitarian support for the country and said the 22 billion euros ($23.6 million) provided so far now made Germany second to the US in terms of total support.

Baerbock said that while Ukraine had already made good progress reforming the judiciary and the media, it still had “some way to go” in combating corruption.

In fighting, Ukrainian forces liberated part of the Donetsk province town of Optyne and advanced on the towns of Klishchiivka and Andriivka south of Bakhmut, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said.

Combat has persisted on the outskirts of Bakhmut since Ukrainian troops pulled out of the city in May. Ukraine is trying to gain the high ground in Klishchiivka, to establish artillery control over Bakhmut.

In southern Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia province, Ukraine's primary counteroffensive forces were inching closer to overcoming Russian fortifications and dense minefields to take Tokmak, a critical logistics hub for Russian forces and a vital railway junction, Malyar said.

Ukrainian forces liberated Robotyne, a town in the same province, last month.

Russian forces also attacked the Dnipropetrovsk province city of Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy's birthplace, with drones overnight, Ukrainian authorities said. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The retaking of the Black Sea platforms follows the UK Ministry of Defense reporting naval and air force skirmishes at sea two weeks ago.

Ukraine has struck several Russian-controlled platforms in fighting during the war, and troops from both countries have occupied them periodically, the UK said in a military update on the war. Along with drilling, the platforms can be used to land helicopters, as deployment bases and to position long-range missile systems.

Pro-Russia occupation authorities seized the platforms operated by the Chernomorneftegaz company following the annexation of Crimea, which most of the world regarded as illegal.

After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than 18 months ago, Putin illegally annexed four provinces in September 2022: Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia. Voting for Kremlin-installed legislatures began in the occupied areas last week as Russian authorities attempt to tighten their grip on territories that Moscow still does not fully control.

Russia’s Central Election Commission said Monday that the country’s ruling party, United Russia, placed first in the four Ukrainian regions and in Crimea.

A leading US government agency that tracks foreign disinformation has terminated its operations, the State Department said Tuesday, after Congress failed to extend its funding following years of Republican criticism.
The Global Engagement Center, a State Department unit established in 2016, shuttered on Monday at a time when officials and experts tracking propaganda have been warning of the risk of disinformation campaigns from US adversaries such as Russia and China, AFP reported.
"The State Department has consulted with Congress regarding next steps," it said in a statement when asked what would happen to the GEC's staff and its ongoing projects following the shutdown.
The GEC had an annual budget of $61 million and a staff of around 120. Its closing leaves the State Department without a dedicated office for tracking and countering disinformation from US rivals for the first time in eight years.
A measure to extend funding for the center was stripped out of the final version of the bipartisan federal spending bill that passed through the US Congress last week.
The GEC has long faced scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who accused it of censoring and surveilling Americans.
It also came under fire from Elon Musk, who accused the GEC in 2023 of being the "worst offender in US government censorship [and] media manipulation" and called the agency a "threat to our democracy."
The GEC's leaders have pushed back on those views, calling their work crucial to combating foreign propaganda campaigns.
Musk had loudly objected to the original budget bill that would have kept GEC funding, though without singling out the center. The billionaire is an advisor to President-elect Donald Trump and has been tapped to run the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with reducing government spending.
In June, James Rubin, special envoy and coordinator for the GEC, announced the launch of a multinational group based in Warsaw to counter Russian disinformation on the war in neighboring Ukraine.
The State Department said the initiative, known as the Ukraine Communications Group, would bring together partner governments to coordinate messaging, promote accurate reporting of the war and expose Kremlin information manipulation.
In a report last year, the GEC warned that China was spending billions of dollars globally to spread disinformation and threatening to cause a "sharp contraction" in freedom of speech around the world.

Ukraine Claims to Recapture Black Sea Oil Platforms Seized during Crimea’s Annexation