Russian forces have left Snake Island in the Black Sea, according to Ukrainian military officials.
The island, where Russian and Ukrainian forces clashed in the first few days of the invasion, was abandoned after a recent operation. Ukraine attacked the island on Monday, claiming it hit a second missile system on the island while trying to keep Russian forces at bay. They reportedly retreated on Thursday.
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“The enemy hastily evacuated the remnants of the garrison in two speedboats and probably left the island,” the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a Telegram post on Thursday.
Ukrainian military officials said the results of an overnight operation were still being assessed but were viewed as a “success” due to evacuations.
The “occupiers were unable to withstand the fire of our artillery, missile and air strikes,” according to Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander in Chief Valeriy Zaluzhny. He thanked the forces from the Odesa region “who took the maximum measures to liberate a strategically important part of our territory,” a reference to Snake Island.
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Russian army spokesman Igor Konashenkov disagreed with Ukraine’s framing of the troop departure, declaring the retreat a “gesture of goodwill” during a briefing. He also alleged that “the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation finished fulfilling the assigned tasks in Snake Island and withdrew the garrison that had been operating there.”
Snake Island made initial news when a small contingent of Ukrainian forces told a Russian warship to “go”f*** yourself,” creating a notably viral moment in the flood of news reports from Ukraine. Officials later confirmed that the soldiers stationed at Snake Island were alive and freed them through a prisoner swap in March 2022. The island has been under attack by Ukrainian bombardments since May 2022 in an attempt to retake it from the Russians.
