Ukrainian troops landed on Snake Island where they raised the Ukrainian flag, officials said, a week after Russian forces withdrew from the strategic Black Sea islet. Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, posted a video on Telegram on Thursday of three soldiers raising a large flag. The representative of the military command in the southern region of Odessa, Serhiy Bratchuk, also posted several photos on Telegram. Later, the Russian Defense Ministry said a Russian fighter jet had struck and killed an unspecified number of Ukrainian troops. “Around 5 am, several Ukrainian soldiers landed on the island from a motor boat and took pictures with the flag. An aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces immediately launched a strike with high-precision missiles on Snake Island, which resulted in the destruction of part of the Ukrainian military personnel,” said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov. Account details could not be independently verified. Snake Island, or Zmiinyi, gained international notoriety when Ukrainian border guards stood their ground and rudely refused an ultimatum from a Russian warship to surrender following the Russian invasion on February 24. The flag raised on Thursday was signed by Odessa military governor Maxim Marchenko and read: “Remember, ‘Russian warship’, the island belongs to Ukraine!!!” Seized by Russia from Ukraine at the start of the war in February, the tiny island is strategically important because of its proximity to sea lanes near Ukraine’s main Black Sea port of Odessa, where the Russian blockade has blocked grain exports from a from the world’s main suppliers. Russia said it withdrew from Snake Island last week as a “gesture of goodwill” to show it was not obstructing United Nations efforts to open a humanitarian corridor to allow grain to be transported from Ukraine. Ukraine said it had driven out Russian forces after an artillery and missile attack.
