Ukraine Uses New Missiles To Attack Russian Oil Drilling Platforms Near Crimea

The significance of this attack is that it signals Ukraine's growing confidence in its ability to use NATO weapons against Russian targets anywhere within reach of its weapons. This includes the primary driver of Russia's economy, its oil. 

It is suggests Ukraine is more seriously preparing to end the Russian blockade preventing export of Ukrainian grain. JL 

Dan Sabbagh and colleagues report in The Guardian:

Russian officials said Ukraine launched missile strikes against three gas rigs in the Black Sea, in an escalation of Kyiv’s attempts to weaken Russia’s maritime dominance. Seven people were missing and three injured after the strikes. The three offshore platforms, the Boyko towers, had been seized by Moscow from Ukraine in 2014. Kyiv believes they are used for military reconnaissance and to help assert control of the Black Sea. An attack on the platforms would represent a further attempt by Ukraine to reach into the Black Sea, coming three days after it destroyed a Russian tugboat near Snake Island using western Harpoon missiles

Russian officials have said Ukraine launched missile strikes against three gas rigs in the Black Sea south of Odesa, in an apparent escalation of Kyiv’s attempts to weaken Russia’s maritime dominance.

Seven people were missing and three injured after the strikes, according to the head of occupied Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, who said a “rescue operation with the participation of patrol ships and aviation” was under way.

The three offshore platforms, the Boyko towers, had previously been seized by Moscow from Ukraine in 2014. Kyiv believes they are used for military reconnaissance and to help assert control of a larger portion of the Black Sea.

There was no immediate official confirmation from Ukraine about the attack, although one Ukrainian MP from the Odesa region, Oleksiy Goncharenko, said in the early morning that missiles had been fired at the rigs.

An attack on the platforms would represent a further attempt by Ukraine to reach into the Black Sea, coming three days after it said it had destroyed a Russian tugboat near Snake Island using western Harpoon missiles.

Last month it emerged that Denmark would supply a Harpoon coastal defence system to Ukraine, with rockets that have a range of 77 miles (124km). It operates alongside Ukraine’s Neptune missiles, which sank the Russian warship Moskva in April.