The Ukrainian flag has been raised over Snake Island, days after Kyiv announced its recapture from Russian forces.
Photos and a video released on July 7 by Arut Papoian, an official from the Borshchahivka council, show the blue-and-yellow flag of Ukraine being hoisted amidst debris on the strategic island.
Kyiv said on July 30 that Russian forces had quit the island after a sustained Ukrainian aerial operation.
Military officials said earlier in the week that the Ukrainian flag had been brought to the island and would be raised as soon as Ukrainian troops arrived.
Serhii Bratchuk, the spokesman for the Odesa military administration, said that a message was written to the Russians on the flag, reminding them that “Snake Island is [part of] Ukraine,” and referencing the Russian warship Moskava that was struck by Ukrainian missiles near Odesa in April and later sank.
Soldier Roman Hrybov’s explicit reply to the Moskava’s commands for Ukrainian forces to surrender Snake Island in February was a rallying cry for Ukrainians early in the war.
shelling
#ate_news #russiaukrainewar #shelling
