Anti-tank missile crew killed and reconnaissance equipment wiped out as Kyiv switches focus to energy sites and military bases inside Russia
The Ukraine strikes killed an anti-tank missile crew and destroyed reconnaissance equipment
03 November 2025
Ukrainian forces claim to have struck an elite Russian special forces unit stationed on an oil drilling platform in the Black Sea.
The strikes killed an anti-tank missile crew and destroyed reconnaissance equipment at the Syvash drilling rig near Russian-occupied Crimea, Ukraine’s navy said on Monday.
Russia disputed Ukraine’s account, distributing footage purporting to show a Ukrainian navy boat destroyed by a Lancet drone.
But Ukrainian military officials said the video actually showed its forces successfully deploying a suicide drone against Russian positions.
The Syvash platform is one of four offshore installations known as the Boyko Towers – including the Petro Hodovanets, Tavryda and Ukraina – that were seized by Russia following its 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The self-elevating drilling rig was previously operated by Ukraine’s state-owned Chornomornaftogaz company for oil and gas exploration.
After seizing the platforms in 2014, Russia equipped each with intelligence and electronic warfare equipment, along with hydro-acoustic systems.
It enabled Moscow to monitor surface, air and subsurface activity in the northwestern Black Sea between Crimea and Odesa.
The drilling platform attack follows a series of Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy facilities, in retaliation for Moscow targeting its power grid.
Last week, the Ukrainian navy launched Neptune missile strikes on two key Russian installations – the Oryol thermal power plant and the Novobryanskaya substation.
According to Ukrainian military officials, both targets supplied electricity to enterprises linked to Russia’s military industry.
The Oryol thermal power plant provides up to 40 per cent of the region’s power needs and 65 per cent of the city’s heating supply, making it one of the area’s main energy sources.
Oryol’s regional governor Andrey Klychkov claimed on Oct 31 that the thermal power plant was damaged by falling drone debris.
Strategic shift to weaken Russia
Ukraine’s growing attacks on Russian energy sites and military bases deep inside Russia mark a strategic shift to weaken Moscow’s ability to wage war, even as Russia pushes forward in eastern Ukraine, creating two parallel fronts that test both sides’ endurance.
Energy sites have been increasingly targeted by Moscow in drone and missile attacks as Vladimir Putin seeks to deplete Ukrainian supplies ahead of winter.
On the ground, Russian forces continue to make steady advances in eastern Ukraine.
Russia captured 461 square kilometres in October, primarily in the Donetsk region, according to data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War.
That pace was consistent with the average monthly gain this year, down from a surge in July when Russia seized 634 square kilometres.
Russia now controls 81 per cent of the Donetsk region, which Moscow claims to have annexed and is fighting to secure full control.
Russia controls or claims to control 19.2 per cent of Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula annexed in 2014 and parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions seized by Moscow-backed separatists before Russia’s 2022 invasion.
The logistics hub of Pokrovsk has come under renewed pressure in recent weeks.
Ukraine’s military said on Monday that Russian troops do not have full control of any district in the eastern city.
“The invaders continue to attack in small groups of up to five soldiers, without using armoured vehicles,” the operation task force responsible for Ukraine’s eastern front line said on Facebook.
Ukraine’s 7th Air Assault brigade said on Monday that its “operation of clearing Pokrovsk from occupiers is ongoing”, with Kyiv sending special forces to the city over the weekend.
The brigade also reported Russian forces were near the outskirts of neighbouring Myrnohrad.
I know this story has already been covered, but it’s nice to have these extra details.
Yes, it is. Preliminary reports are mostly lacking certain details.
“Ukraine’s 7th Air Assault brigade said on Monday that its “operation of clearing Pokrovsk from occupiers is ongoing”, with Kyiv sending special forces to the city over the weekend.”
Awesome!
Some really outstanding comments here :
Patrick Schrabauer
It’s incredible how many nations and politicians stand by as witnesses to the most blatant landgrab since Hitler.
The free world could have secured peace if it had struck in month one, but instead, NATO and Europe chose delay, and every delay multiplies the cost in lives and resources for everyone. And still, Trump throws his body protectively in front of Putin, as if the natural collapse of Russia were the greatest disaster. But collapse is not the catastrophe. It’s the cure.
Russia must learn to live sustainably, to stand on its own feet instead of being lured by trade while murdering millions, civilians among them. None of this is legal, civilian, or military, there are no “legitimate targets,” only crimes waiting for consequence, reparations, and the slow dismantling of a criminal state.
“Let them fight it out” is not strategy. It’s complicity. You wouldn’t tell a grandmother to fight off her robber. You’d capture the robber and bring him to The Hague.
Peace was not when Russia rose, but when it fell.
Its collapse is not a tragedy. It’s how it finally gets the chance to build a real nation. One that doesn’t need to steal to exist.
Carpe Jugulum
Year 4 and Putin’s invasion, and attempted theft of Ukrainian resources to be carved up with his oligarch chums, is looking more moronic by the day.
From being a conventional forces peer adversary of NATO Russia has been ground down to the level of a gutter drunk threatening violence far beyond his capacity.
A single dotard murdering thug has led Russia to ruin and the Russian populace have established themselves as THE most cowardly and supine population in history. An entire nation of pathetics have tolerated over a million of their sons killed or maimed and are too stupid to wonder whether that is perhaps too high a price to pay to ‘denazify’ Ukraine or even question the actual purpose.
Putin and the Russian populace deserve each other.
Caroline Hayne
And where is Trump amid all this? Partying at Mar-a-Lago and threatening to send troops to Nigeria to save Christians. What about aiding Ukraine? That could upset his friend in the Kremlin. He prefers Ukraine to lose so he can do as little as possible to support with Tomahawk missiles. He’s focused on the future, envisioning a Trump hotel in Moscow. Ukrainians are heroes, dying in large numbers to protect their country from a deluded old warmonger who still lives in the 19th Century.
David R Crawford
“The self-elevating drilling rig was previously operated by Ukraine’s state-owned Chornomornaftogaz company for oil and gas exploration.”
So Putin and his oligarch pals stole it. Yet more proof that Putin began the Ukraine War in February 2014 in order to loot and plunder Ukrainian wealth.
Obviously not for any of the Putin Lies that his disciples plague us with!
All comments are spot on!