On February 24, Russia began a "special military operation" against Ukraine with lightning speed, and within a dozen hours, Kiev, Kharkov, Mariupol, Kherson and other places were hit by Russian precision-guided weapons, including airports, command centers, radar stations, anti-aircraft missile positions and other 83 military targets were destroyed, ground forces also began to advance into Ukraine, and the Network rumored that Ukraine's naval and air force has "become history".
■ Ukrainian military vehicles and radar facilities destroyed in Russian attacks.
One of the targets of the first day of the Russian attack was one that stood out from the crowd, the small island of Snake (known to Ukrainians as Zmenei Island) in the eastern part of the Black Sea. According to media reports, the Russian Black Sea Fleet dispatched the Glory-class guided-missile cruiser "Moscow" and the patrol ship "Vasily Bikov" with a displacement of up to 12,500 tons to arrive in the waters of Snake Island on the afternoon of the 24th. At 18:00 that night, the Ukrainian side announced that contact with Snake Island had been severed, and at 22:00 confirmed that the island had been occupied by Russian troops.
On February 25, Ukrainian President Zelenskiy announced that 13 border guards on Snake Island refused to surrender, all of them were killed, and would posthumously award them the title of "Hero of Ukraine". However, it was later reported that 82 Ukrainian officers and men on the island had surrendered to the Russians. Regardless of whether the news is true or not, what is so special about this small island that the Russians took advantage of the cattle knife to kill the chicken and seize it on the first day of the war?
■ Russian Black Sea Fleet guided-missile cruiser Moscow, which participated in the Battle of Snake Island.
Located off the Sea east of the mouth of the Danube River, Snake Island is administratively under the jurisdiction of the Odessa Oblast of Ukraine, 35 km from the nearest Ukrainian coast and about 45 km from the nearest Romanian coast. Snake Island is igneous geology, the whole island is roughly X-shaped, southwest to northeast length of 690 meters, southeast to northwest length of 682 meters, the highest altitude of 41 meters, the total area of only 0.205 square kilometers, the island is flat terrain, the population is only about 100 people, most of them are border guards, technicians and their families, the island has built lighthouses, small docks, helicopter platforms, power stations, post offices, banks, first aid stations, radio towers and other infrastructure. The island lacks fresh water and needs to be replenished by air from the coast on a regular basis.
■ Snake Island's location on the Black Sea, at the mouth of the Danube River, close to the borders of Ukraine and Romania.
The history of Snake Island can be traced back to ancient Greek times, because the island is rich in white marble, it was called White Island by the Greeks, and in the documents of the Byzantine Empire, Snake Island has a more mythological name: Achilles Island, derived from the ancient Greek hero Achilles in Homer's epic poem "Troy", the island once built a temple and statue commemorating Achilles, and the ancient Greeks would cross Hayden Island and kill sacrifices. In the 19th century, the remains of the temple were discovered on the island, but the ruins were later buried for the construction of the lighthouse. Snake Island, a name given by the Greeks during Ottoman Turkish rule, was part of the Ottoman Empire in modern times but was captured by Russia in 1829 and recovered by the Turks during the Crimean War of 1856. After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, the Ottoman Empire ceded Snake Island to Romania as compensation for Russia's annexation of southern Bissalabia, thus becoming Romanian territory.
■ A bird's eye view of Snake Island shows that there are a small number of buildings on the island and small trestles.
During World War I, Romania and Russia, both members of the Allies, allowed russians to build a radio station on Snake Island, but on 25 June 1917 they were shelled and destroyed by the Turkish cruiser Midili (former german Navy light cruiser Breslau), and the lighthouse on the island was destroyed, nearly completely. After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles reaffirmed Snake Island as Romanian territory, and the lighthouse was rebuilt in 1922.
■ The German Navy light cruiser Breslau in 1912, ceded to the Turkish Navy in World War I.
During World War II, Snake Island became a coastal defense outpost in Romania, rebuilt radio stations, and deployed a Marine Platoon here, equipped with several 122 mm and 76 mm guns captured from the Soviet Army, in addition to two 45 mm shore guns, two 37 mm anti-aircraft guns and 2 anti-aircraft machine guns. After the outbreak of the Soviet-German War in June 1941, the warships and submarines of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet were often infested near Snake Island, and in order to strengthen the defense, the Romanian Navy and the German Navy jointly operated to lay two minefields around Snake Island in October and November 1942. On December 1, 1942, the Soviet Navy cruiser Voroshilov and the destroyer "Keen" shelled Snake Island, firing 46 180 mm shells and 57 100 mm shells, but the shelling was stopped due to the mine of the "Voroshilov", the ship returned to the port with damage, and the island facilities were not significantly damaged. On 11 and 17 December, Soviet submarines Shch-212 and M-31 were sunk by mines. In August 1944, the Romanian army withdrew from Snake Island, and the Soviets occupied it at the end of August.
■ The 180 mm main gun of the Kirov-class cruisers of the Soviet Navy, the "Voroshilov" belongs to the Kirov class.
After the war, sovereignty over Snake Island was unresolved, but was effectively controlled by the Soviet Union until February 1948, when the two countries signed a border protocol that brought several islands at the mouth of the Danube, including Snake Island, under Soviet administration, but Romania had doubts about the validity of the protocol because it had not been formally ratified by both governments, but did not dare to claim sovereignty. In the same year, the Soviet Union built a radar station on Snake Island to meet the needs of naval operations and air defense operations. In February 1961, the two countries signed a border treaty, which finally confirmed the Sovereignty of the Soviet Union over Snake Island. However, the issue of delimitation of the continental shelf in the waters surrounding Snake Island has never been resolved, and there is no consensus on the 20-year negotiations between the two countries from 1967 to 1987.
■ Ukrainian border guards on Snake Island are on duty in front of the sovereignty sign.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the jurisdiction of Snake Island was inherited by Ukraine, and Romania proposed to re-demarcate the territory of Snake Island and other territories in 1995, which was rejected by Ukraine, and the relations between the two countries were once tense, and then signed the "Treaty of Friendship Uro" in 1997, the two sides promised not to exchange territorial claims, and Ukraine did not deploy offensive weapons on Snake Island, and would not develop resources in the disputed sea area until the issue of maritime delimitation was resolved. In 2003, Romania, which sought to join NATO, formally recognized Snake Island as part of Ukraine, as NATO required candidate countries not to engage in territorial disputes with their neighbours, and the issue of maritime delimitation between the two countries was ruled by the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 2009 to allocate 80 per cent of the disputed sea area to Romania.
■ Offshore oil platform offshore Bulgaria in the western part of the Black Sea, the Black Sea is rich in oil and gas resources.
Snake Island itself is small in area and limited in military value, which is not worth Russia's efforts to mobilize the masses, but friends familiar with the law of the sea understand that the value of the island often does not lie in its own size, but in the exclusive economic zone of the surrounding sea area and the development of its marine resources. Located at the mouth of the Danube River, Snake Island is rich in nutrients and rich in fishery resources, with as many as 58 species of fish identified. More importantly, there are abundant oil and gas resources under the nearby continental shelf.
The Black Sea is the key area for the development of offshore oil and gas resources today, especially the coastal waters in the western part of the Black Sea near Romania are the seas where oil and gas resources are concentrated. In August 2020, Turkey discovered a natural gas field with reserves of up to 320 billion cubic meters in its Exclusive Economic Zone of the Black Sea, which is enough to prove the attractive prospects of oil and gas development in the Black Sea, and in recent years, the countries surrounding the Black Sea have also actively promoted offshore oil and gas exploration and exploitation.
Obviously, Russia's seizure of Snake Island must first ensure control of the surrounding waters in order to gain the initiative for the exploitation and utilization of marine resources in the future. The move also seems to imply that the ultimate goal of Russia's military operation is likely to include occupying all of Ukraine's coastline, depriving it of its maritime rights and turning it into a landlocked country.
#82名乌士兵向俄军投降 will be sent home #