Battle for Snake Island is key to control of Black Sea, UK Defence Ministry says
Ukrainian forces are fighting to regain control of Snake Island as concerns grow over Russian dominance in the Black Sea, the British military has said.
Moscow has sought to reinforce its troops on an island that became famous in February when Ukrainian fighters there rejected calls from a Russian warship to surrender.
Attacks on the island, also known as Zmiinyi, have disrupted Russia’s plans to expand its influence in the area, UK intelligence officials said.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence said on Twitter yesterday that Russia’s efforts to strengthen its foothold on the island “offer Ukraine more opportunities to engage Russian troops”.
“If Russia consolidates its position on Zmiinyi Island with strategic air defence and coastal defence cruise missiles, they could dominate the north-western Black Sea,” the ministry said.
It said Ukrainian troops “successfully struck Russian air defences and resupply vessels” with Bayraktar drones.
The Turkish-made drones have been vital to Ukraine’s defence and are the subject of a song that claims they “make ghosts out of Russian bandits”.
The British military said Russia’s resupply vessels had little protection after its navy withdrew to the Crimean Peninsula once the Moskva warship was destroyed last month.
Satellite imagery analysed by AP has shown fighting is continuing in the region.
Roger McDermott, a visiting senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said Russia’s inability to defeat Ukraine after about three months of fighting was a result of poor decision making.
In an article published by the British think tank, Mr McDermott said Moscow’s misjudgments in the war stemmed from “badly crafted intelligence – especially from the FSB [Federal Security Service]”, as well as its previous success in using military force.
He said Moscow underestimated the Ukrainian military and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed “to recognise that the war in Ukraine would be fought on a scale way beyond his experience or that of his senior generals”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that his military made small gains in the conflict, such as driving Russian forces out of four villages near the north-eastern city of Kharkiv.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has suggested that Kyiv is growing in confidence in the war, potentially expanding its goals beyond forcing Russia back into areas it held before the invasion began on February 24.
Mr Kuleba told the Financial Times that Ukraine initially believed victory would be represented by the withdrawal of Russian troops to positions they occupied before the war began.
But the focus has shifted to the eastern industrial heartland of the Donbas after Russia failed to take Kyiv.
“Now, if we are strong enough on the military front, and we win the battle for Donbas, which will be crucial for the following dynamics of the war, the victory for us in this war will be the liberation of the rest of our territories,” Mr Kuleba said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s natural gas pipeline operator was yesterday expected to stop Russian shipments through the east of the country.
The operator said Russian shipments would no longer pass through its centre in Novopskov, an area controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.
About a third of Russian gas passing through Ukraine to western Europe arrives at the centre, it said. Russian stateowned company Gazprom said the centre handled about a quarter of the gas.