A training base on a secretive island housing British soldiers teaching Ukrainian army men has been destroyed, Russia has claimed.
The fort island of Pervomaisky – also known as Maisky Island – is big enough just to fit an army training base, and it is where many UK soldiers were teaching Ukrainian special forces since Vladimir Putin first ordered his Russian troops to invade the country.
It formerly belong to Russia, having been built in 1895, but was bombed by the Lutfwaffe in 1941.
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It is not know if, or how many British troops were still at the site when it was bombed, but Russian military expert Vasily Dandykin has told pro-Putin news outlet Moskovskij Komsomolets that it has now been destroyed.
He said: “There was a de facto British base there, where saboteurs-submarines were trained.
“They invested in it, taught.
“During Soviet times, the legendary separate brigade of the GRU special forces was located on Maisky Island, on the basis of which combat swimmers were trained.
“It so happened that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, this base, the strongest school of saboteurs and submariners, was transferred to the Ukrainian Navy.
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“(The island) was remembered when the West began to intensively prepare Ukraine for confrontation with Russia.”
He goes on to claim that a missile attack took place in February, and also stated that the “elite, most hidden part of the special forces” were killed in the strike.
Dandyin also stated that the base was full of under water drones previously used to destroy Russian ships in the Black Sea near Sevastopol.
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Putin has so far lost more than 600,000 soldiers in Ukraine, with more than 70% of those being comprised of man injured so badly that they can no longer return to battle.
The Daily Star has contacted the Ministry of Defence for a comment.
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