KYIV -- The Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) of Ukraine's Defense Ministry on August 24 said it had conducted a special operation in Russian-annexed Crimea along with the Ukrainian Navy in a mission coinciding with the country’s Independence Day and leading to the raising of the national flag again in the region.
"Special units reached the shores on watercrafts near settlements of Olenivka and Mayak," the HUR statement said. "During implementation of the assignment, Ukrainian defense forces entered battles with the occupier's units. The enemy suffered losses among military personnel [and] its military equipment was destroyed."
“Also, the national flag flew over Ukraine's Crimea again," it added, saying that Ukrainian units safely returned after carrying out the assignment.
The details could not immediately be independently verified.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirmed that HUR's units had conducted the special operation in Crimea.
"It is too early to talks about the liberation of Crimea.... Yes, those were our guys.... There were no casualties from our side, and that is a good news," Zelenskiy said during a joint press conference with visiting Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in Kyiv.
Sources within Ukraine's intelligence services told RFE/RL earlier that Ukrainian armed forces clashed with occupying Russian troops near the settlement of Mayak on Crimea's Tarkhankut Cape overnight.
The SHOT Telegram channel in Russia also reported about the clashes on the Tarkhankut Cape.
HUR official Andriy Yusov later confirmed the report, saying Ukrainian forces were assisted by the Ukrainian Navy during the fighting.
The 3rd Radio Engineering Regiment of the Russian Aerospace Forces, as well as Russian air-defense systems, are located in Mayak.
Russia illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 after sending in troops, seizing key facilities, and staging a referendum dismissed as illegal by at least 100 countries.
Also in 2014, backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk commonly known as Donbas.
After starting an ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian troops have occupied parts of other Ukrainian regions.
Ukraine has resisted the invasion and vowed to recapture all of its territory occupied by Russian forces.
