Russia withdraws from Ukraine’s strategic Snake Island
MOSCOW — Russia said on Thursday it is withdrawing its troops from Ukraine’s Zmiinyi Island, or Snake Island, in the Black Sea, which it has occupied since the second day of the war.
Ukrainian forces have relentlessly attacked the small rocky island with armed drones and aircraft. It is strategically located only about 28 miles from Romania, near the Danube River delta.
Ukrainian Armed Forces commander Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said in a Facebook statement that Russia was “unable to withstand the fire of our artillery, missile and airstrikes.”
He thanked the Ukrainian forces as well as Kyiv’s foreign partners for their weaponry.
In mid-June, Ukrainian forces succeeded in attacking a Russian ship whose likely mission was to bring weapons and personnel to Russian occupied Snake Island, according to Western intelligence assessments.
The Vasily Bech was damaged by anti-ship missiles provided to Ukraine by Denmark, according to Kyiv.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed that the withdrawal was a “sign of goodwill” and showed Russia was not obstructing the export of grain and agricultural products from Ukraine.
The forces “completed their assigned tasks on Snake Island,” he said.
It is not clear whether or how Snake Island’s change of hands could affect grain exports by sea from Ukraine.
For months Russia has been accused of blockading Ukrainian ports, hindering the export of grain and consequently increasing the risk of famine in poor countries.
The U.N. World Food Programme, for instance, sourced a large portion of its wheat supplies for emergency relief operations from Ukraine before Russia’s invasion.
Ukrainian authorities said Thursday that a large quantity of grain was destroyed in a Russian attack in the east of the country.
A fire broke out in the affected warehouse in the city of Zelenodolsk, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Resnichenko, wrote on Telegram. Forty tons of grain were apparently destroyed.
Moscow, for its part, said a ship with 7,000 tons of grain had left the Russianoccupied port of Berdyansk, the state news agency Tass reported. The destination of the cargo was not disclosed.
Evgeny Balitsky, leader of the Moscow-appointed administration in the Zaporizhzhya region, was reported as saying on Telegram that the ship would head to “friendly” countries.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military said in a Thursday morning update that Russia was using artillery to try to blockade the Ukrainian city of Lysychansk, the last remaining part of the eastern Luhansk region under Kyiv’s control.