Russia leaves Snake Island, keeps up assault on the east

Moscow’s retreat is a strategic victory for Kyiv; Russia, China hit out at Nato after alliance raised alarm over the two nations

KYIV: Russian forces withdrew from a strategic Black Sea island Thursday, potentially easing the threat to the vital Ukrainian port city of Odesa, but kept up their push to encircle the last strong- hold of resistance in the eastern province of Luhansk.

The Kremlin portrayed the pull-out from Snake Island as a “goodwill gesture”.

Ukraine’s military said the Russians fled in two small speedboats following a barrage of Ukrainian artillery and missile strikes. The exact number of troops was not disclosed.

The news from the Black Sea came as Nato leaders wrapped up their summit in Madrid, with US President Joe Biden announcing $800 million in new weapons to help Ukraine’s fight.

“We are going to stick with Ukraine, and all of the alliance are going to stick with Ukraine, as long as it takes to make sure they are not defeated by Russia,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, compared the new diplomatic low to the return of the Cold War, telling reporters: “As far as an Iron Curtain is concerned, essentially it is already descending... The process has begun.”

But there may be a possible opening: Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo said, after meeting Putin in Moscow, that he had given the Russian leader a message from their Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.

Meanwhile, Putin said his goals in Ukraine haven’t changed since the start of the war. Nato faced rebukes from Moscow and Beijing on Thursday after it declared Russia a “direct threat”, inviting Sweden and Finland to the alliance, and said China posed “serious challenges” to global stability at a summit in Madrid.

China accused the alliance of “maliciously attacking and smearing” the country. Its mission to the European Union said Nato “claims that other countries pose challenges, but it is Nato that is creating problems around the world.”

Putin condemned Nato’s “imperial ambitions” and desire to project “supremacy”, but said Sweden and Finland are welcome to join the military alliance.

Meanwhile, Moscow kept up its push to take control of the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. It is focused on the city of Lysychansk, the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in Luhansk province.

Russian troops and their separatist allies control 95% of Luhansk and about half of Donetsk, the two provinces that make up the mostly Russianspeaking Donbas.

Ukraine said the Russians were shelling Lysychansk and clashing with Ukrainian defenders around an oil refinery on the edge of the city.