Russian forces yesterday announced they had abandoned the strategic Black Sea outpost of Snake Island, in a major victory for Ukraine that could loosen the grip of Russia’s grain export blockade.
The Russian Ministry of Defense described the decision to withdraw from the outcrop as a “gesture of goodwill” that showed Moscow was not obstructing UN efforts to open a humanitarian corridor allowing grains to be shipped from Ukraine’s ports.
However, Ukraine said it had driven the Russian forces out after a massive artillery assault overnight.
“KABOOM!” Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, wrote on Twitter. “No Russian troops on the Snake Island anymore. Our Armed Forces did a great job.”
Ukraine’s southern military command posted an image on Facebook of what appeared to be the island, seen from the air, with five huge columns of black smoke rising above it from what it described as an assault by missiles and artillery.
“The enemy hurriedly evacuated the remains of the garrison with two speed boats and probably left the island. Currently, Snake island is consumed by fire, explosions are bursting,” it said.
Reuters could not immediately verify the photograph or either side’s battlefield accounts.
The outcrop controls access to sea lanes to Odesa, Ukraine’s main Black Sea port, where a Russian blockade has prevented exports of grain from one of the world’s main suppliers, creating a global food supply shock and risk of famine.
Russia captured it on the war’s first day, when a Ukrainian guard there, ordered to surrender, radioed back: “Russian warship: go fuck yourself.”
The incident was immortalized on a Ukrainian postage stamp. The day the stamp was issued, Ukraine sank the ship, flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
In related news, Pope Francis yesterday implicitly accused Russia of “armed conquest, expansionism and imperialism” in Ukraine, calling the conflict a “cruel and senseless war of aggression.”
The pope, speaking to a delegation of Orthodox leaders in Rome, referred to the conflict as one pitting Christians against one another.
Both Russia and Ukraine are predominantly Orthodox Christian, but there is a sizeable Catholic minority in Ukraine.
“Reconciliation among separated Christians, as a means of contributing to peace between peoples in conflict, is a most timely consideration these days, as our world is disrupted by a cruel and senseless war of aggression in which many, many Christians are fighting one another,” the pope said.
The pope also told his Orthodox visitors, in a clear reference to Russia, that all needed “to recognize that armed conquest, expansionism and imperialism have nothing to do with the kingdom that Jesus proclaimed.”
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