Russian military leadership ordered escalation in Black Sea, Ukrainian army intercepts show

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has shared an intercepted radio communication reportedly between the Russian operational officers from Russia’s Navy headquarters and Russian guard ships during the Russian attack on three Ukrainian ships near Kerch on 25 November. The record shows pieces of several conversations.

The records exclude an accidental collision of FSB border guards ship “Don” (№ 353) with Ukrainian tugboat “Yany Kapu” – the Ukrainian ship was rammed two times, intentionally, by orders from Russia’s military leadership. Moreover, the record discloses that it was another FSB border guard ship “Izumrud” (№354) which opened fire on the Ukrainian Navy vessels, wounding Ukrainian servicemen.

This article and its headline have been updated to clarify that the “Medvedev” mentioned in the article is probably not Dmitry Medvedev but Gennady Medvedev, head of the FSB border service on Crimea. The previous version of the headline read “Russian leadership ordered…”

Commander of the guard ship “Don” reports to HQ,

“I pushed it [the Ukrainian tugboat] the second time, I tore its board a little bit along the ship feed, I have the thoughts, f*ck, to beat the battleships [Ukrainian armored boats], but not the tugboat, they will definitely stop them. Militaries are maneuverable, they began to maneuver quickly.”

An HQ officer replies,

“The order from the Border Service is to kick them, to ram them, to destroy f*cking everything.”

The HQ says that Moscow demands clarification regarding who conducted the collision, when, and where it took place. At first, Don’s captain and then its navigator explain that Don collided with the A947 (Ukrainian tugboat Yany Kapu) twice, at 6:35 and 6:44 EET, and mention coordinates of the ramming attack sites.

Yesterday, a the video of one of Don’s ramming attacks on Yani Kapu was shared on YouTube, here it is translated:

Later the HQ officer says,

“We should assault them, we have to destroy them, f*ck! Medvedev is panicking, shouting, it seems that the president is controlling all that shit.”

“Medvedev” mentioned in the intercepted communication (https://t.co/cdrrl3xYuC) is not Russia’s PM Dmitry Medvedev, it’s probably Gennady Medvedev, head of FSB border service office in Crimea via https://t.co/9QzyM6KTro pic.twitter.com/Y29O4Q5M3s

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) November 27, 2018

After discussing methods how to ram the Ukrainian ship, Don’s captain confesses,

We have a serious collision with “Izumrud.”

Photographs, made yesterday when the FSB ships reached the Kerch Bridge and later shared on social networks, show a hole on the right side of “Izumrud”:

The last conversation is a report by Don’s captain who, replying to the question “Who opened fire?” by “Captain Basov from operations group,” says,

Guard ship “Izumrud” did.

Andrey Shipitsyn, captain of border ship “Izumrud” who opened fire on Ukrainian Navy boats. Find by Twitter user @askai707

Read more about the incident:

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