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Ukraine Destroys an Offshore Platform Used for GPS Spoofing

Russian gas platform strike
The claimed strike on an offshore platform off Crimea (Dmytro Pletenchuk)

Published Aug 11, 2024 3:41 PM by The Maritime Executive


Last week, the Ukrainian Navy launched an operation to fight back against Russian GPS spoofing - with force. According to a spokesperson, Ukraine's military attacked and destroyed an idle gas platform off Crimea, which Russian units had used as a broadcasting station for GPS interference equipment. 

"The occupiers used this location for GPS spoofing to endanger civilian navigation. We cannot allow this," said Ukrainian Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk. "Half a day before the strike, the enemy had placed equipment and military personnel on the platform. No civilians were there, and the platform was not performing its regular functions."

Pletenchuk emphasized that Ukraine would not have struck the installation if it were still functioning as a civilian facility. He told local media that this was not the first time that Ukraine had destroyed an offshore jamming installation, and that Russia was using the equipment in an attempt to disrupt Ukrainian grain shipping. 

Separately, Ukraine's Main Directorate of Defense Intelligence (GUR or HUR) said that one of its Magura V5 suicide drone boats had attacked and destroyed a Russian patrol boat off the coast of Crimea. 

In a strike near the coastal village of Chornomorske on Friday night, a HUR Magura V5 drone boat struck a KS 701 "Tunets" landing craft. The attack also damaged three more vessels, the agency claimed. It released a video appearing to show a drone boat maneuvering under heavy fire from a Russian attack helicopter and approaching a marina; the imagery does not show the attack's conclusion.