Russia withdraws from Snake Island; Ukraine celebrates it as a military victory

There are two versions about the strategic islet. On the one hand, the Kremlin has shown the withdrawal from the Snake Island (also known by the name of Zmiinyi), a key point due to its position to control the Black Sea, as a gesture of “good will”.

According to the Defense Ministry, the move is made to “demonstrate to the international community that Russia does not interfere in the UN’s efforts to organize a humanitarian corridor for the export of agricultural products from the territory of Ukraine.”

On the other hand, the Ukrainian Army maintains that the Russians fled in two small speedboats after a barrage of Ukrainian artillery and missile attacks that had begun in recent weeks.

Is it then an act of Russian “good will” or a Ukrainian military victory? Both sides stand by their truths. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov announced on Thursday, June 30, that “the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation completed their assigned tasks on Zmiinyi Island and withdrew the garrison stationed there.”

He added that “this decision will not allow kyiv to speculate on the issue of an impending food crisis, referring to the impossibility of exporting grain due to Russia’s total control over the northwestern part of the Black Sea.”

Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of blockading Ukrainian ports to prevent grain exports, contributing to a global food crisis. Russia has denied the accusations, saying that Ukraine needs to remove mines from the Black Sea to allow safe shipping.

Hence, the Kremlin considers that now “the ball is in Ukraine’s court, which has not yet cleared the Black Sea coast, including the waters near the port” of Odessa, the only one that remains under its control.

But this version of “good will” has changed in the course of this Thursday, June 30. Russia ended up admitting in the Telegram account of the Ministry of Defense that it was because of the Ukrainian counterattacks. “The decision was made to withdraw the garrison from the island to avoid losses” among the army ranks, since “the main priority is the lives of Russian soldiers and officers,” he said.

The island, the Russian Defense Ministry said, “has strategic importance, but at the moment it no longer fulfilled its function of airspace control and, given the constant attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, large resources were spent on its maintenance. “.

For Ukraine withdrawal is a victory

Ukraine has been carrying out counter-attacks on the island for weeks, the last time was last night (Wednesday, June 29), according to the Southern Command, and recently the head of the Department of Military Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR), Major General Kyrylo Budánov, had assured that these would continue until the island was liberated.

“I thank the defenders of the Odessa region who have done everything to liberate strategically important territory,” Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valerii Zalujnii said on Telegram. And he wrote on Facebook that the Russian Army “was unable to withstand our artillery fire, missiles and air strikes and abandoned Zmiinyi Island.”

“KABOOOM! There are no Russian troops on Snake Island anymore. Our Armed Forces did a great job,” tweeted the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak.

Why is Snake Island strategic?

This rocky island, located in the Black Sea, about 45 kilometers from the Ukrainian and Romanian coasts, has a great strategic value because it is located along a busy shipping route and whoever controls it has control of the sea, the land and the air in the northwestern part of the Black Sea and southern Ukraine.

Russia seized control of the islet in the early days of the war in the apparent hope of using it as a staging ground for an assault on the port city of Odessa.

Now, it is unclear whether the withdrawal from the island means a change in Moscow’s designs on Odessa, Ukraine’s largest port, crucial for shipping grain to Africa, the Middle East and other parts of the world, and also the headquarters of the country’s army.

This island has taken on an almost mythical significance for the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion when a Ukrainian border guard, Roman Gribov, who was captured with 12 companions by the Russians on the small island, responded with a raised middle finger to the demand for surrender. , in a radio message, from the commanders of the Russian flagship in the Black Sea, the “Moskva”, sunk in April by Ukraine.

The Ukrainian defenders of the island were captured by the Russians but later released as part of a prisoner exchange. After the island was taken, the Ukrainian military has hitherto heavily shelled the small Russian garrison there and its air defenses.

Snake Island, a name given by the Ottoman sailors who avoided it because it was full of sea snakes, no longer has a single one of these reptiles in its barely square kilometer of surface. But if there are, according to the GUR, Russian air defense complexes, three units of rocket artillery systems, a group of boats and special forces units.

The islet served to provide cover for Russian aviation and the Black Sea fleet, among other strategic advantages. And this is the reason why Ukraine wanted to get it back.

In addition, according to EFE reports, last week they carried out two counterattacks against the Russian garrison on the island and hit two Pantsir-C1 missile and anti-aircraft gun complexes, a radar station and military vehicles.

At the end of the historic NATO summit in Madrid marked by the Ukraine war, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he sees Russia’s withdrawal as a sign that Ukraine will prevail in the war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“In the end, it will be impossible for Putin to hold onto a country that will not accept” the occupation, Johnson said.

With EFE, AP and AFP