Snake Island had become a symbol of the war in Ukraine since the first day of the Russian invasion, February 24.
The Ukrainian army said Thursday July 7 that it had regained control of Snake Island in the Black Sea, having surrendered its flag there a few days earlier after Russian forces withdrew from that small, iconic area . “We (there) have effectively restored our control,” said a senior Ukrainian army staff official, Oleksiï Gromov, who was quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine press agency as specifying that it was a “physical check” by the military.
However, according to him, the Ukrainian soldiers who took part in the operation have returned to their barracks. He did not specify whether soldiers remained on the island. “Last week we established arms control over the island and prevented the enemy from taking the rest of their units, weapons and military equipment,” he continued.
Iconic since day one
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, claimed it carried out an attack on Snake Island with “high-precision missiles” on Thursday morning, killing some of the Ukrainian soldiers who went there to raise a flag and prompting the survivors to flee . . However, Kyiv announced on Monday that the Ukrainian flag was flying again on this small piece of land in the north-west of the Black Sea.
Also readWar in Ukraine: the Russian retreat from Snake Island, a Ukrainian victory with uncertain military consequences
This island became a symbol from the first day of the Russian invasion, when a member of the small Ukrainian garrison defending it ordered the Russian ship, which was demanding its surrender, to “fuck itself”. After being under Russian control, it was taken over by the Ukrainians last week after intense bombing. Moscow claimed to withdraw from the area “as a show of goodwill” after “achieving” the “set goals”.
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