Russia’s Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday that its forces had destroyed a US-made high-speed military boat carrying Ukrainian military personnel east of Snake Island in the Black Sea, News.ro reported, citing Reuters.

The flag of Ukraine, reinstalled on Zmiiny IslandPhoto: special unit “Zgard”/Derzhkordon / INSTAR Images / Profimedia

The ministry said that the boat on which, according to them, the “Ukrainian landing party” was located, was destroyed by a Russian fighter jet.

Moscow did not provide more details, and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has not yet responded.

Snake Island is a small Ukrainian outpost in the northwestern Black Sea, where tensions have risen since last month Russia scrapped an agreement that allowed Ukraine to ship grain from its southern ports despite the war. Since Moscow abandoned the deal, Russian drones and missiles have repeatedly struck Ukrainian ports and grain silos, and Ukrainian naval drones have damaged a Russian warship and hit a Russian oil tanker.

The island became synonymous with Ukrainian resistance in the first hours of the war, on February 24, 2022, when Russian officers on the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet “Moskva” radioed a summons to the Ukrainian guards stationed there and ordered them to surrender or be bombed. . The defenders of the island responded with the appeal “Russian ship, go to hell”, which became popular as a national slogan in Ukraine. Russia captured the island but abandoned it on June 30 last year after suffering heavy losses trying to defend it.

  • Read also: VIDEO. The Ukrainians do not let the Russians forget that they lost the Snake Island / What the border guards did

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