Ukrainian Scouts Took Rare Trophies From Boyko Towers
- 12.09.2023, 11:21
- 16,728

A modern electronic warfare system spare part was among them.
As a result of two raids on the Crimea-2 gas production platform (the Boyko Towers) in the Black Sea in the last week of August, the Ukrainian military could seize not only radar stations but also one of the parts of the modern Russian Diabazol electronic warfare system. This follows from an analysis of the video published by the GUR (Ukrainian Defence Intelligence).
Radio Liberty carefully studied the video of the GUR’s raid on the gas production platforms of Chernomorneftegaz near Zmeiny Island (Snake Island). At the 9th minute in the video, a box appears on which information about the recipient and sender of the cargo is visible. The recipient is military base 60135, the 475th Separate Electronic Warfare Center in Sevastopol. The sender is Voronezh JSC Protek, manufacturer of the Diabazol electronic warfare system for the Russian army. As follows from the information on the Protek JSC website as of 2018, the company does not produce other electronic warfare systems.
The Diabazol may include three automated jamming stations: Altaets-AM, R-934UM and R-330Zh Zhitel. The latter were spotted more than once in Ukraine even before the invasion. These systems are relatively modern and have been in service since 2008.
Russia lost at least 13 Zhitel systems and one R-934UM station in Ukraine during the full-scale war. All of them were destroyed, according to the database of the Oryx project, which tracks the losses of sides in the war using open sources. Regardless of which system components are in the box captured by Ukraine on the Crimea-2 platform, this may be the first time they are captured by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in its entirety and intact.
In June 2022, after the first Ukrainian attack on the Boyko Towers, the authorities of annexed Crimea reported that as a result of it, several Chernomorneftegaz employees went missing. Then it became clear that at least one of the platforms was guarded by the Russian military.
The radars installed on the platforms helped the Russian army control this part of the Black Sea even after the “goodwill gesture” and retreat from Zmeiny Island. Helicopter missiles and fuel were also reportedly seized during GUR raids in August 2023.