- Snake Island became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance in the first days of the war.
- It was also a strategic target, sitting aside shipping lanes near Ukraine’s port of Odessa.
- Ukraine has begun to receive longer-range missiles and military gear from Western backers.
Russian troops abandoned their positions on a captured Ukrainian island on Thursday, a major setback to their invasion effort that weakens their blockade of Ukraine’s ports, defence officials said.
The Black Sea news came as NATO leaders concluded their summit in Madrid, intent on demonstrating their unity and determination to provide advanced weapons to Kyiv in the face of Moscow’s assault.
Snake Island became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance in the first days of the war, when the rocky outcrop’s defenders told a Russian warship that called on them to surrender to “go f*ck yourself,” an incident that spurred a defiant meme.
It was also a strategic target, sitting aside shipping lanes near Ukraine’s port of Odessa. Russia had attempted to install missile and air defence batteries while under fire from drones.
Now, however, Ukraine has begun to receive longer range missiles and military gear from its Western backers, and the Russian position on Snake Island seems to have become untenable.
“In the end, it will prove impossible for (President Vladimir) Putin to hold down a country that will not accept his rule,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, stressing that any eventual peace deal would be on Ukraine’s terms.
“We’ve seen what Ukraine can do to drive the Russians back. We’ve seen what they did around Kyiv and Kharkiv, now on Snake Island.”
The Russian defence ministry statement described the retreat as “a gesture of goodwill” meant to demonstrate that Moscow will not interfere with UN efforts to organise protected grain exports from Ukraine.
But Kyiv claimed it as a win.
“They always downplay their defeats this way,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter.
“I thank the defenders of Odessa region who took maximum measures to liberate a strategically important part of our territory,” Valeriy Zaluzhny, the Ukraine military’s commander-in-chief, said on Telegram.
In peacetime, Ukraine is a major agricultural exporter, but Russia’s invasion has damaged farmland and seen Ukraine’s ports seized, razed or blockaded — threatening grain importers in Africa with famine.
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