Off the coast of Romania, the small island of Serpents has become a strategic point in the clashes between the Ukrainian and Russian armies in the Black Sea.
Located about fifty kilometers from the mouth of the Danube and about a hundred kilometers from the Ukrainian city of Odessa, this Ukrainian territory of barely a few hectares theoretically makes it possible to hit the entire Ukrainian coast.
From the first day of the conflict in Ukraine, the Russians attacked it to seize it. The Russian cruiser Moskva, sunk by the Ukrainian army since, approached the island and summoned the Ukrainian border guards to surrender. One of them would then have retorted by radio: “Russian ship, fuck you…”, a phrase that has become the symbol of Ukrainian resistance to the invader.
If some Ukrainian media had announced that the Ukrainian border guards perished as heroes under the fire of Russian warships, they would actually have surrendered. The episode, hyped up by Ukrainian propaganda, gave this small island a symbolic dimension, beyond its strategic importance.
incessant clashes
Controlled since by a Russian garrison, Serpents’ Island is under constant fire from the Ukrainians who are trying to retake it.
Impressive footage, released on May 7, shows two Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jets bombing the island in a high-risk raid. The video was shot by a Bayraktar TB-2 drone which was flying over the area.
#Ukraine: The Ukrainian Air force is still alive- seen here are two Ukrainian Su-27 striking Russian facilities on the famous Snake Island in the Black Sea, in remarkable footage filmed by a TB-2 drone.
As we can observe, there is serious damage. pic.twitter.com/ogN3gOU8uJ
— Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) May 7, 2022
For the past week, these same TB-2 drones – of Turkish manufacture – have been harassing the Russian troops present on or around the island. Supporting videos, the Ukrainian army has claimed responsibility in recent days for the attack on two Raptor-class patrol boats, a Serna-class landing ship and an Mi-8 helicopter.
According to @DefenceU2 Russian Raptor-class ships were bombed by a drone #BayraktarTB2 near Snake Island pic.twitter.com/CJt8EjWaJx
— OlivierDassonville (@TheDarkPixel) May 2, 2022
Ukrainian Bayraktar TB2 destroyed another Russian ship. This time the landing craft of the “Serna” project. The traditional parade of the Russian Black Sea fleet on May 9 this year will be held near Snake Island – at the bottom of the sea. pic.twitter.com/WYEPywmAwX
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) May 7, 2022
Snake Island, a Ukrainian TB-2 hits a Russian Mi-8 as troops are unloading pic.twitter.com/FJabRRBzCH
—OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) May 8, 2022
“The traditional parade of the Russian fleet on May 9 will take place this year near Serpents’ Island, at the bottom of the sea,” quipped the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense on Twitter.
A long history of conflict
Occupied successively by the Greeks, the Genoese, Turkey, Moldavia, Romania and the USSR, Serpents’ Island has always been hotly contested. In 1788, it was even at the heart of a naval battle between the fleet of the Russian Empire and that of the Ottoman Empire.
After the fall of the Soviet Empire, Ukraine and Romania claimed sovereignty over the territory. In 2009, the International Court of Justice ruled and decided that the island was Ukrainian.
This decision allows Ukraine to benefit from a large maritime domain and the wealth that goes with it, in particular hydrocarbons.