Snake Island, finally safe
Stamps produced by the Ukrainian side of the Defenders of Snake Island provoking Russian cruisers.
On June 30, Russia announced its withdrawal from the occupied Ukrainian island of Snake. In fact, the ukrainian side had announced the day before that it was noticing that Russia was withdrawing troops from the island. Soon, the Russian side announced that it had decided to abandon Snake Island because of "expressing goodwill", and it seemed that while the Eastern Region continued to make progress, Russia's war in the Black Sea was not very smooth. Snake Island, a small island that the two sides have repeatedly fought for, is estimated that it will not be bombarded by missile bombs in a short period of time.
Zmiiniy Island is located near the mouth of romania's Danube Delta, far from Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula, and the route between them is Odessa to the north. Therefore, snake islands at the mouth of the Danube are of great strategic importance.
For Russia, setting up relay stations on Snake Island can make the attack of Russian missiles on southern and central Ukraine (such as Odessa or Dnipropetrovsk) more accurate, and it is a key point to block the outlet of the Ukrainian Black Sea, and to some extent, it is also a hub connecting the so-called pro-Russian East Coast Republic in Moldova with the Russian mainland. Therefore, at the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the Russian army seized it.
Looking back at the fighting around Snake Island, it has been continuous for months —
On February 24, the Russian army raided Snake Island, and the Ukrainian defenders refused to surrender, and the scene of the middle finger of the Moscow on the stamp is a interpretation of this scene. The Ukrainian garrison on Snake Island resisted stubbornly, killing at least 13 men (Zelenskiy declared them "Ukrainian heroes") and about 80 others captured.
On the afternoon of February 26, Russian military ships sent the Group of Ukrainian captured soldiers to Sevastopol, and Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov released a news message in the evening of the same day, telling reporters that the Ukrainian Navy ships tried to use "swarm" tactics to attack Russian ships transporting prisoners of war, the attack has been repelled, and several Ukrainian ships have been sunk.
This was the first naval battle near Snake Island, and this attack appeared to have suffered little losses from the Russians, probably related to the lack of ukrainian speedboat firepower. For unknown reasons, The Ukrainian naval ships were hardly equipped with missiles, and they were not prepared for torpedo warfare. Consider Ukraine's strong military-industrial enterprise and design capabilities before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Snake Island has been under Russian control ever since, but fighting continues.
Ukraine announced it had hit one of Russia's most advanced stealth frigates between Snake Island and Odessa, causing it to explode and sink. A few days later, however, Russia announced that the frigate had returned to the port of Sevastopol. Whether ukraine boasts of the results of the war or Russia's Li Daitao is deadlocked, it has not been possible to confirm.
However, on April 15, the proud Russian Black Sea Fleet, the cruiser Moscow, exploded on the surface of Snake Island. Whether it was hit by a missile according to Ukraine or, according to Russia, it caught fire in an accident, and Moscow eventually sank the next day, becoming the largest ship of warships built after World War II to be sunk in military operations.
At that time, some people felt that the waters of Snake Island were really an ominous place for the naval personnel of both sides.
On May 5, the Ukrainian Navy announced the sinking of the Russian frigate Admiral Makarov in the waters of Snake Island with Neptune shore missiles – and this is also one of the largest combat ships that the Russian Black Sea Fleet was able to fight after the sinking of the Moscow cruiser.
This result was not confirmed, and on May 7, the Ukrainian side showed battlefield photos showing a Russian Antelope-class high-speed landing craft docked near Snake Island when it was spotted by Ukrainian drones and guided missiles to destroy it.
The moment the Russian landing craft was hit.
Not to be outdone, the Russians immediately set a trap, on the one hand, pretending to withdraw the defenders of Snake Island, on the other hand, launching a counterattack when the Ukrainian Navy tried to retake the island, sinking a Type 1271 frigate (the Ukrainian Navy's Type 1271 ship actually has a displacement of less than 500 tons, internationally known as the Venom Spider-class missile boat, which can carry four anti-ship missiles).
Although the tonnage of this ship is not large, it is already the largest card in the hand for the Ukrainian Navy, which sank almost all its ships as soon as the war began, so this blow is also very heavy for it.
The operation was unsuccessful, and Ukraine did not give up, and has since repeatedly attacked Snake Island with long-range missiles and drones, including attacks on its defenders and supply ships.
On June 17, the Ukrainian General Staff announced that the Ukrainian Navy had used whaling fork anti-ship missiles to hit the Russian Black Sea Fleet ocean rescue tug Vasily Bekh on a mission on Snake Island.
The Ukrainian side provided photos of the explosion of the missile hitting vasily.
This attack should be done in a shore-to-ship manner, using drones as intermediaries. However, shortly after the report was published, Uchiha deleted the record of the use of whaling fork missiles in this battle, perhaps in order to downplay the issue of aided weapons. Ukraine claimed in follow-up reports that vasily had caught fire and was being dragged to the Sevastopol military port. The next day it was confirmed that the ship sank during towing. It seems that the bottom of Snake Island has another part of the iron bottom shipwreck.
Since then, the Russian army has transported a large number of supplies, including Doyle anti-aircraft missiles, to the island in an attempt to continue to hold. However, on June 29, the Ukrainian army once again launched a fierce attack on Snake Island, and the island facilities were severely damaged. The next day, the Russian army announced that it had withdrawn from Snake Island in "good faith". As for how much of this evacuation was due to goodwill and to the reduction of losses, it is not known at present. At this point, the offensive and defensive battle of Snake Island should come to an end.
Abandoning the island does not seem like a good decision for Russia for whatever reason, because Snake Island is both strategic and symbolic.
There is a paragraph that is slightly extreme, but it is more clear -
"It's going to be a very interesting place, ukraine can play any way you want." The simplest is to send a helicopter up for a walk, if you are afraid of casualties, first put a drone up, throw a Ukrainian flag, is a good publicity. It is not impossible to re-station troops, because Russia will have more difficulty in hitting this place than Ukraine - its ships will also be attacked by anti-ship missiles in the direction of Odessa when they are close to the firing range; If snake island is attacked with missiles, it is difficult to say whether the missiles currently used by Russia are accurate enough? Of course, it is speculated that there will not be a large number of officers and men stationed, and it may only put a missile observation and early warning station, and three or five people will put an antenna and 100 bamboo poles, which is estimated to make the opponent very mad. Although it is easy to say, the lives that disappeared in the war still make people feel sad. ”
Strategically, it is likely to mean the opening of Ukraine's sea lanes. Whether transporting supplies from the far Mediterranean Sea through the Turkish Strait to Ukraine or transporting supplies overland from Romania from the Mouth of the Danube to Odessa, it will have a great impact on the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield.
Think about it, if you want to transport a ship of arms at sea, how much more convenient than the railway? If Ukraine had placed Harpoon missiles on Snake Island, the Black Sea Fleet would have had a real headache to intercept the corresponding fleet. Moreover, the Ukrainian occupation of Snake Island would provide an earlier alarm for Russian missiles to attack Ukrainian cities, which is a good air defense outpost.
Symbolically, Ukraine once issued a stamp on which the defenders of Snake Island had sunk the Cruiser Moscow with their fingers, symbolizing Ukraine's initial invincibility, and if it was taken back by Ukraine, it would be a great encouragement from morale. How could Russia abandon this place?
The Russian General Staff will make such a decision, and there must be some unavoidable consequences. If Russia can't control the island, it means it can't fully control the Black Sea either. This is certainly not a pleasant news for Putin. However, on the one hand, Ukraine carried out flag-planting operations, and on the other hand, it said that it would not necessarily have troops on the island for a short time - probably realizing that the island was too small to build fortifications, and people were beaten.
However, when we thought that the war on Snake Island should be over, on July 2, the Russian army once again attacked the unguarded island with missiles, presumably destroying the remaining facilities. The explosion on the island was spectacular.
It seems that the peaceful days of Snake Island are still early.
【End】
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