Ukraine War: Snake Island Attack Deals 'Significant Losses' to Russia; Satellite Images Show Major Damage

According to a recent report, Ukrainian forces launched an attack that inflicted "significant" damage to Russian soldiers on Snake Island.

The Black Sea island, also known as Zmiinyi Island, was the target of a counterattack by Ukrainian forces late on Tuesday, according to the Ukrainian news site Ukrinform. The offensive involved various forces, which caused substantial losses on Russian troops stationed there.

Ukraine Destroys Russia's Defense Equipment

The military of Ukraine claimed to have destroyed Russian radar and air defense equipment on the island. On Wednesday, it remained unclear whether Ukrainian forces had taken up residence on the island or if the counterattack had just entailed long-range firing. Russian authorities denied the allegations, claiming that their air defenses on the island had successfully resisted Ukrainian forces, according to the NY Post.

In the early stages of the conflict, Snake Island, a key stronghold on barely 40 acres of rock protruding into the Black Sea, became well-known. Two Russian ships approached the island and gave the island's Ukrainian defenders the order to surrender as the Russian assault got underway.

The border guards posted there radioed back to the invader's warships in what rapidly became a battle cry for Ukrainian forces. The island was then attacked and overrun by Russian forces, who captured many of the Ukrainian defenders.

Early reports said that the soldiers guarding Snake Island had perished, and the incident came to represent the Ukrainian people's tenacious resistance in the face of overwhelming odds.

Meanwhile, the Russian defense ministry said that Ukraine had attempted "another foolish effort" to retake the island and that Russia had thwarted the attack and "destroyed all hostile weapons" targeted at the island.

The Black Sea shipping channels, which include routes for grain delivery into and out of Ukraine and access to the port of Odesa, are tightly controlled by the Russian-occupied island, as per USA Today.

Olha Stefanishyna, the deputy prime minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, declared on Wednesday that she is "100%" convinced that all EU countries would accept Ukraine's formal request as early as Thursday, the first day of the EU leader's summit in Belgium.

Ukraine Targets Russian Warship With Western's Anti-Ship Missiles

State-backed Russian hackers have been conducting "strategic espionage" on governments, think tanks, companies, and humanitarian organizations in 42 countries that support Kyiv concurrently with relentless assaults against Ukraine, according to a study released by Microsoft on Wednesday. Per Daily Mail, the latest assaults came days after a Russian navy tugboat hauling sailors and munitions to Snake Island was destroyed in the Black Sea merely with two Harpoon missiles.

It was the first time Kyiv claimed to target a Russian warship with the Western-supplied anti-ship missiles. The tug Vasily Bekh was attacked at 4 am as it transported troops, weapons, and ammunition to a contentious island, according to footage from Ukraine's Armed Forces Strategic Communications Directorate.

Later, according to Ukrainian reports, 23 sailors on the tug were injured and 10 men were missing, assumed dead. 33 was assigned as the crew number. The US initially developed the Harpoon anti-ship ballistic missile, which is presently produced by Boeing.

While the United Kingdom and Denmark have stated their willingness to deliver ballistic missiles, the United States has provided Ukraine with Harpoon missiles. The source of these ballistics was not readily apparent.

The Snake Island confrontation comes as a Ukrainian kamikaze drone plowed into a large oil refinery on Russian soil today, causing a massive firestorm explosion. In footage, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is seen flying low above the Rostov region, which borders Ukraine, on its way to the Novoshakhtinsk oil complex. The drone then attacks the oil refinery, causing a massive explosion that can be heard 10 miles away, as shown on film.

The critical strategic facilities, which were around four miles from the pro-Putin puppet state of Luhansk People's Republic in Ukraine, were engulfed in flames and black smoke flowed from them.

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Russia, Ukraine, Black Sea