Kyiv, Ukraine
Reuters
Russian forces abandoned the strategic Black Sea outpost of Snake Island on Thursday in a victory for Ukraine that could loosen the grip of Russia’s blockade on Ukrainian ports.
Russia said it had decided to withdraw from the outcrop off Ukraine’s south-western coast as a “gesture of goodwill” to show Moscow was not obstructing UN attempts to open a humanitarian corridor allowing grains to be shipped from Ukraine.
A satellite image shows an overview of Snake Island, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine, on 30th June. PICTURE: Maxar Technologies/via Reuters
Ukraine said it had driven the Russian forces out after an artillery and missile assault overnight.
“KABOOM!” tweeted Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff. “No Russian troops on the Snake Island anymore. Our Armed Forces did a great job.”
Prisoners line up alongside a road during an exchange of prisoners, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the location given as Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, in this handout photo released on 29th June. PICTURE: Courtesy of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence/Handout via Reuters.
UKRAINE WINS RELEASE OF 144 SOLDIERS IN BIGGEST PRISONER SWAP OF WAR
Ukraine on Wednesday carried out its biggest exchange of prisoners of war since Russia invaded, securing the release of 144 of its soldiers, including 95 who defended Mariupol’s steelworkers, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said.
The majority of the Ukrainians were badly wounded, suffering from gunshot and shrapnel wounds, blast traumas, burns, fractured bones and amputated limbs, the agency known by the acronym GUR said in a statement on Telegram.
There was no comment from Russia about a prisoner swap.
But the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine said it had secured the release of 144 soldiers, including its fighters and those of the Russian army.
“We handed over to Kyiv the same number of prisoners from Ukrainian armed units, most of whom were wounded.”
Hundreds more Ukrainians are still thought to be held by Russia and its pro-Moscow separatist proxies in eastern Ukraine, but their precise whereabouts are not known.
In particular, Kyiv has worried over the fate of hundreds of fighters from the Azov regiment that played a prominent role in the defence of Mariupol and its Azovstal steelworks before being encircled and eventually laying down their arms.
The prisoner swap included the handover of 43 members of the Azov regiment, a National Guard unit that Russia says is a dangerous far-right battalion, a promising sign for Ukrainians hoping for the release of other fighters from the unit.
– PAVEL POLITYUK/Reuters
In contrast, however, a Ukrainian official in the heavily fought eastern province of Luhansk described difficulties for Ukrainian forces in the city of Lysychansk on Thursday.
Russian artillery shelled from different directions while the Russian army was approaching from different sides, regional Governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Ukrainian television.
“Residents have been told to remain in underground shelters indefinitely as it is very dangerous,” Gaidai said.
An official from the pro-Russian separatist administration in Luhansk province told RIA news agency the Lysychansk oil refinery was now fully controlled by Russian and pro-Russian forces, and all roads to Lysychansk were also under their control. Ukraine says the main road out is largely impassable because of fighting, but the city is not yet fully cut off.
In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy commented on both Snake Island and the Donbas region, which comprises Donetsk and Luhansk provinces on the border with Russia.
The recovery of Snake Island was significant for the Black Sea situation but “it does not yet guarantee security. It does not yet ensure that the enemy will not come back,” he said.
In Luhansk and Donetsk, the Russians “have simply brought in all their reserves to hit us,” Zelenskiy said.
Russian firepower
Russian forces have been trying to encircle Lysychansk since they captured Sievierodonetsk, on the opposite side of the Siverskyi Donets River, last week after weeks of heavy fighting.
Russia has focused its firepower on capturing cities and towns in the Donbas region, which comprises Donetsk and Luhansk provinces on the border with Russia.
Despite yielding ground and taking punishing losses in the Donbas in recent weeks, Ukraine hopes to inflict enough damage to exhaust Russia’s advancing army. Ukrainian forces have been mounting a counter-attack in the south of the region.
Gaidai and Zelenskiy both mentioned Russia’s overwhelming advantage in equipment and artillery in the battle for Lysychansk. Ukraine’s Western allies have been sending weapons and the Kyiv government was given another boost with the United States saying it would provide a further $US800 million in weapons and military aid.
US President Joe Biden, speaking after a NATO summit in Madrid, said Washington and its allies were united in standing up to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I don’t know how it’s going to end, but it will not end with Russia defeating Ukraine,” Biden told a news conference. “We are going to support Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
Putin said during a visit to Russia’s foreign intelligence agency (SVR) on Thursday that one of SVR’s main tasks is obtaining information in a timely manner on foreign military and geostrategic plans that may threaten Russia, according to the Interfax news agency.
Smoke and fire
Snake Island was retaken by Ukraine after weeks in which momentum in the four-month-old conflict appeared to be shifting in favour of Russia.
The Ukrainian military posted an image on Facebook of what appeared to be the island, seen from the air, with several columns of black smoke rising above it.
“The enemy hurriedly evacuated the remains of the garrison with two speed boats and probably left the island. Currently, Snake island is consumed by fire, explosions are bursting,” it said.
Ukrainian Brigadier General Oleksii Hromov said Ukrainian forces were not yet occupying the island but would do so.
The rocky outcrop overlooks sea lanes to Odesa, Ukraine’s main Black Sea port, where Russia is blocking food cargos from one of the world’s leading grain suppliers.
Snake Island captured world attention after Russia seized it on the war’s first day. A Ukrainian guard, ordered by Russia’s flagship cruiser Moskva to surrender, radioed back “Russian warship: go f*** yourself”.
A general view of Snake Island, Ukraine, in this handout still image obtained by Reuters on 30th June. PICTURE: Ukraine Operational Command South/via Reuters.
Lifting the blockade has been a primary goal of the West. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has accused Russia of deliberately causing world hunger as “blackmail”.
Moscow denies blocking the ports and blames food shortages on Western sanctions it says limit its own exports.
“We do not prevent the export of Ukrainian grain. The Ukrainian military has mined the approaches to their ports; no one prevents them from clearing those mines and we guarantee the safety of shipping grain out of there,” Putin said on Thursday.
Several military experts said that driving the Russians from Snake Island would not by itself be enough to unblock the ports.
“Does that mean that suddenly the grain flows? No it doesn’t really,” said Marcus Faulkner, a lecturer of War Studies at King’s College London.
Russia had defended the island since February despite Ukraine claiming to inflict severe damage, sinking supply vessels and destroying Russian fortifications.
New weapons sent by the West made the Russian garrison even more vulnerable, especially HIMARS, a rocket system supplied by the United States which Ukraine began fielding last week. Russia’s abandonment of the island was “likely a tangible result of NATO arms deliveries to Ukraine”, said Rob Lee of the US-based Foreign Policy Research Institute.
– With reporting by Reuters bureaux
