“The military operation has been completed and … the territory, Snake Island, has been returned to the jurisdiction of Ukraine,” Natalia Humeniuk, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern military command, told reporters. Ukraine sees control of the island as a crucial step in easing Moscow’s blockade of its southern ports. However, it was unclear whether Ukrainian troops would seek to establish a permanent presence there, as it is dangerously exposed to shelling. On Sunday, a military official told the Guardian that the Black Sea area around Snake Island was still a “grey zone”, meaning that, technically, the Ukrainians did not intend to bring their forces back. Snake Island became known internationally when Russia first seized it in February. A Ukrainian soldier stationed on the island told an attacking Russian warship to “fuck you”, a phrase that has since become one of the most popular Ukrainian resistance slogans. ‘Go fuck yourself’, Ukrainian soldiers tell Russian ship on Snake Island – audio The Ukrainian postal service issued a stamp showing a Ukrainian soldier giving the finger to the Russian cruiser Moskva, which was later sunk. Since Russia took control, Ukrainian troops have tried to retake it several times. Russia claimed it withdrew from the island on Thursday as a “gesture of goodwill” to show it was not blocking United Nations efforts to open a humanitarian corridor to allow grain to be transported from Ukraine. A Russian military attack on the town of Serhiivka, near Odessa, on Friday was interpreted by Ukrainian authorities as retaliation for Russian troops being forced off Snake Island the previous day. At least 21 people, including two children, were killed in the attack when two Russian missiles hit a block of flats and a leisure centre. “The occupiers cannot win on the battlefield, so they resort to brutal killings of civilians,” said Ivan Bakanov, head of Ukraine’s security service, SBU. “After the enemy was displaced from Snake Island, [they] decided to respond with the cynical bombing of political targets”. Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy said that while the withdrawal would not guarantee the security of the Black Sea region, it would “significantly limit” Russian activities there. “Step by step we will push [Russia] out of the sea, our land, our sky,” he said. Kyiv accused Russia on Saturday of dropping incendiary white phosphorus on Snake Island. Ukrainian personnel were not present at the time of the attack and, according to military experts, the Russians used it to burn weapons and ammunition left there before retreating.
