I am attempting to make Bread & Butter sugar free pickle slices and was asking a Russian friend living in EU how she makes pickles, here's her directions, though I think hers were unsliced dills, don't know if it matters:

• Wash the cukes and soak them in clean water by 1-2 hours.
• Wash good the lids and jars. Add dry spices for cucumbers. I add 1 tea spoon of this dry spices in each jar.
• Fill the jars with cucumbers. Add sugar and salt. Then pour the mix of vinegar and water. We have here a strong vinegar - it is 9%. Need to mix it with water. 1 cup of vinegar and 3 cups of water. I have a mix of this vinegar and water for my cucumbers in one bottle. Just pour this vinegar and water mix to the jars. (EDIT: 9% vinegar at 3:1 is stronger than 5% vinegar at 2:1 I think...)
• Put lids on the jars and screw them. Put the jars in big pot. Fill with cold water. Put the pot on gas stove. Wait when the water inside will start to boil. Then wait 1 minute more. Turn off the gas. The jars need to stay inside of the pot until the water became cold. I always make this pickled cucumbers on evening and the water until morning will cool down. I just take the jars from the pot. They are already vacuumed.

When I asked how much does she submerge the jars, she says they stick out of the water.

" My jars in the pot are covered more then 2/3 with water. It just about 4-5 cm out of water. "

When I asked doesn't she boil the vinegar & water & sugar, etc, she said no.

" No. Don't boil sugar, salt and vinegar for cucumbers. But use such boiled mix for making pickled red beetroot."

Does anybody else use a similar method? Is this safe? Comments please.