On Friday, the Ukrainian military released a message to mark the anniversary of Russia’s departure from Snake Island, in which they recalled that it was here that their flagship “learned” what to do.

“A year ago, Ukrainian troops liberated Zmiiny Island. This small piece of land in the Black Sea became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance. Here, the Russian warship learned where to go and what to do,” the Ministry of Defense in Kyiv wrote on Twitter, referring to the famous gesture of Ukrainian border guards after the crew of the Moskvai called on them to surrender.

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine also released a video of its soldiers raising the Ukrainian flag again on Zmiiny Island, a few days after the Russian retreat.

At first, it was believed that all Ukrainian border guards stationed on Zmiiny Island had died, but on February 28 of last year, the Ukrainian Navy announced that they were actually alive because they had been captured by Russia. Snake Island was captured from the first day of the Russian invasion, being one of Moscow’s priority targets due to its strategic importance in the Black Sea.

Ukrainian border guards who defended the island were released from captivity and personally awarded by President Volodymyr Zelenskyi in March 2022. As for the “Moscow”, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Ukrainians sank it a month later.

How the withdrawal of the Russians from the Snake Island became the subject of jokes

“On June 30, as a sign of goodwill, the Russian armed forces completed their tasks on Zmiiny Island and withdrew their garrison from there,” the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported exactly one year ago, stating that this step should facilitate the export of grain from Ukraine.

“Russia does not oppose the efforts of the UN to create a humanitarian corridor for the export of grain products from Ukraine. This decision will no longer allow Kyiv to speculate on the inevitable food crisis, saying it is impossible to export grain due to Russia’s total control over the northwestern Black Sea,” he added in the voice of his spokesman, General Igor Konashenkov.

In the months that followed, Konashenkov’s comment that Russia was withdrawing “as a sign of goodwill” was widely mocked by Ukrainians as well as war watchers on social media, as the Ukrainian army released a video shortly after the announcement showing him repeatedly striking troops on the island over the next weeks

“At night, as a result of a successful combat operation of our missile and artillery units on Zmiiny Island, the enemy hastily evacuated the garrison with two boats and probably left the island,” the operational command south of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported at the time.

The photo he posted shows heavy fires on Zmeiny Island as Russian troops withdraw, but it is unclear whether they were caused by the bombing or by the Russians destroying their own equipment to keep it out of enemy hands.

Ukrainians say they want to turn the wreckage of the “Moscow” into a tourist attraction

The Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksiy Reznikov, in a message published on April 14 this year, on the anniversary of the death of the Moskovka, said that it had become “the best attraction for divers.”

“A year ago, the Russian cruiser Moskva completed its last and most successful operation involving the Navy of Ukraine. It has undergone a transformation from the largest bank of the Black Sea to the best place for divers. We will not stop. Russians have 3 options: run away, surrender their weapons or swim in the sea,” Reznikov wrote on his Twitter page.

Reznikov also said in a video he posted with the message that Ukrainian authorities would set up a tour in Odesa for tourists to visit the site of the shipwreck, 130 kilometers south in the Black Sea near the Ukrainian port city and east near Zmiiny Island.

Ukraine has already declared the sunken ship an “underwater cultural heritage”.

The missile attack on the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet on the night of April 13-14 last year and its subsequent sinking became Ukraine’s first serious military strike, almost immediately becoming a symbol of Ukrainian resistance to aggression initiated by Vladimir Putin.

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