In a significant win for Ukraine that could ease a Russian grain export embargo that threatens to deepen world famine, Russian forces abandoned the strategically important Black Sea outpost of Snake Island on Thursday.
As a “gesture of goodwill” that demonstrated Moscow was not impeding U.N. efforts to build a humanitarian corridor allowing wheat to be exported from Ukraine’s ports, Russia withdrew from the outcrop, according to the defense ministry.
Following a significant artillery and assault overnight, Ukraine claimed to have driven the Russian forces from the area.
The chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted, “KABOOM!” “There are no longer any Russian soldiers on Snake Island. Our armed forces performed admirably.”
In a Facebook post, Ukraine’s southern military command depicted what seemed to be the island from above, with at least five enormous columns of black smoke rising above it from what it claimed was a missile and artillery assault.
“With two speed boats, the enemy quickly evacuated the remaining garrison and most likely abandoned the island. Fire and explosions are currently engulfing Snake Island.”
Reporters were unable to independently confirm the image or the battlefield accounts from either side right away.
The barren rocky outcrop regulates the water lanes to Odesa, the key Black Sea port for Ukraine, where Russia’s embargo has prohibited grain exports from one of the major sources, leading to a global scarcity, price inflation, and the threat of starvation.
When a Ukrainian guard there was told to surrender by the Russian cruiser Moskva, he radioed back, “Russian warship: go fuck yourself,” which led to Russia capturing the island on the first day of the conflict.
On a Ukrainian postage stamp, that occurrence was memorialized. The ship, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, was sunk by Ukraine on the day the stamp was released.
The northwestern Black Sea may fall under Russia’s control if it were to strengthen its hold on Snake Island with air defense and coastal defense cruise missiles, according to the British defense minister last month.
Despite Ukraine’s escalating claims that it had inflicted considerable damage, sunk supply ships, and destroyed Russian defenses, Russia had defended the island since February.
HIMARS can be launched at the island from the Ukrainian mainland. The robust new rocket system that the United States provided last week has started to be deployed in Ukraine.
Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the American-based Foreign Policy Research Institute posted on Twitter that “Russian forces on the island are at growing risk” as a result of Ukraine receiving HIMARS and Harpoon anti-ship missiles.
The possibility of Ukrainian grain exports from Odesa, which are essential for both the country’s economy and the world’s food supply, is the most important factor.
The head of Ukraine’s armed forces acknowledged that the Russians being driven off the island had been in part due to howitzers produced in Ukraine, but he also expressed gratitude to other nations for their assistance.
