The Russian Armed Forces left Zmeiny Island

The Russian Armed Forces have left Snake Island off the coast of Ukraine in the Black Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed.

highlights Release :

• The island was left on June 30 "as a gesture of good will" after completing the assigned tasks, its garrison was withdrawn.
• This demonstrates to the world community that Russia "does not interfere with the efforts of the UN to organize a humanitarian corridor for the export of agricultural products from the territory of Ukraine." ◽
• The decision "will not allow Kyiv to speculate on the topic of an impending food crisis" due to the impossibility of exporting grain through the Russian-controlled northwestern part of the Black Sea.
• "Now the word is up to the Ukrainian side, which still does not clear the Black Sea coast near its shores, including the port waters."

The Ministry of Defense does not give military-tactical arguments for leaving the Serpentine.

The fact that Serpentine was abandoned was reported on Thursday morning by patriotic channels, and then officially confirmed by the Ukrainian operational command "South". The latter wrote that under the "fire strikes of our rocket and artillery units," the enemy "hurriedly evacuated the remnants of the garrison with two speed boats."

Observers have repeatedly pointed out that from a military-tactical point of view, Zmeiny Island is a "poison pill" - a position that is easier for each of the parties to the conflict to attack than to defend. The island is small, with no shelters or sources of fresh water, and is within range of Ukrainian Tochka-U missiles and French-supplied Caesar self-propelled guns. In recent days, the Ukrainian media reported on the destruction of the infrastructure and Russian air defense systems on it, there was no confirmation of this from the Russian side.