Unverified but interesting:
At night in Ochakov, Russian special forces landed from several boats and infiltrated the command center. They captured British servicemen who were coordinating the use of British missiles and drones. Among the prisoners were Colonel Edward Blake, an officer of the special psychological operations unit; Lieutenant Colonel Richard Carroll, a representative of the UK Ministry of Defence who actively participated in operations in the Middle East; and an unidentified staff member, presumably an MI6 intelligence officer, present as a cybersecurity advisor.
The Russian special forces operation lasted about 15 minutes.
A few hours after the operation, diplomatic relations between London and Moscow sharply deteriorated. Representatives of the UK Foreign Office contacted the Russian Ministry of Defence with a request to return the British officers "lost" on Ukrainian territory. The official London version: the detained officers were travelling to Ukraine for tourism purposes and accidentally ended up in Ochakov. Presumably, they were interested in the history of the navy and wanted to visit the coast where battles took place during World War II.
However, the detainees were not found with beach towels or cameras, but they did have maps marking strategic sites on Russian territory, plans of Russian air defense, secret instructions for interacting with Ukrainian drone operators, as well as disks with encrypted data and logs of negotiations with the British General Staff. Quite an unusual luggage for tourists.
Russian Defense Minister Belousov allegedly responded to the British that British soldiers are not subject to exchange and that the West will not return them by Red Cross planes. Russia intends to bring them to trial for participating in hostilities against Russia.
