Russia withdrew its forces from the strategic Black Sea outpost on Snake Island in what the defense ministry described as a “gesture of goodwill” to help restore Ukraine’s grain supplies, but which Kyiv said was a humiliating retreat.
The ministry said Thursday that its troops had “completed their tasks” and “demonstrated that Russia is not blocking UN efforts to organize a humanitarian corridor for the export of agricultural goods from Ukraine.”
Kyiv denied this, saying it had driven Russian forces off Snake Island with artillery bombardment. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the victory showed that the Allies “should not be careful to provide Ukraine with more heavy weapons”.
Andrei Ermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, posted a photo on Twitter of streams of smoke rising from the island and hailed the “great work” of the armed forces.
The capture of Snake Island gave Ukraine a strategic post near key shipping lanes and other disputed areas of the Black Sea, as well as an important symbolic victory.
Slightly larger than a rock, the 0.2-square-kilometer island received worldwide attention in the early days of the conflict, when a Russian cruiser asked the Ukrainian contingent based there to surrender, only to receive the answer: “A Russian warship, go to hell! ”The response became a unifying cry for Ukraine and was immortalized on a stamp showing a soldier giving a middle finger to a Russian ship.
The Ukrainian army has released a video showing that they believe the Ukrainian Bogdana howitzer is hitting targets on the island. Russia has evacuated troops at night in two motorboats, according to the southern command of the Ukrainian armed forces.
“The occupiers left Snake Island after failing to cope with the fire from our artillery, missile and air strikes,” said Valery Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces.
He thanked the “foreign partners for the supply of offensive weapons” but did not say what other weapons Ukraine had used to attack the island.
Ukraine’s allies have recently given it the longest range and heaviest weapon in the four-month conflict so far. These include US artillery missile systems and French howitzers, but Kyiv says it needs significantly more weapons systems and ammunition to regain occupied territory.
Ukraine said this month that it had used US Harpoon anti-ship missiles to sink a Russian tug, the first time it said it had used Western weapons against Russian targets in the Black Sea.
Increased Ukrainian firepower has made the cost of holding Snake Island too difficult for Russia, defense analysts said, and offers hope for unblocking grain supplies from the nearby port of Odessa.
Russia has blocked all of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, seized ports in the neighboring Sea of Azov, and repeatedly struck key infrastructure for Ukraine’s grain exports, including railroads and grain silos.
The UN is in four-way talks with Turkey to end the blockade, which has closed export routes to 80 per cent of Ukraine’s grain and threatened to starve many countries in the Middle East and Africa that buy its wheat and corn.
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Putin blamed Ukraine for the crisis and said Russia would end the blockade only if the West eased sanctions on shipping, payments and insurance, which Moscow says hinder its own agricultural exports.
The defense ministry said its withdrawal from Snake Island would prevent Kyiv from speculating “on the impending food crisis, saying it could not transport grain due to Russia’s total control over the northwestern Black Sea.”
However, Kyiv said UN talks were stalled because Moscow intended to use them to consolidate its dominance in the Black Sea. Ukraine is also reluctant to clear mines off its coast, which it says does not affect export routes and is needed to protect itself from coastal attacks.
Russia regularly uses its presence in the Black Sea for missile strikes on mainland Ukraine. The crossfire caught some ships in Ukrainian ports and prevented others from using Black Sea shipping lanes.
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