The head of Ukrainian military intelligence on Friday said that Ukraine will fight for the remote Zmiinyi Island (Snake Island) in the Black Sea “for as long as is needed”. “Whoever controls the island can at any time block the movement of civilian ships in all directions to the south of Ukraine,” Kyrylo Budanov said in televised comments.
Meanwhile, Russia on 24th February launched its invasion of Ukraine. And, according to the latest updates, Ukraine claimed it had damaged and set on fire a Russian navy logistics ship in the Black Sea. The Vsevolod Bobrov was near Snake Island, said Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odesa regional military administration in southern Ukraine. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said “very difficult negotiations” were ongoing to evacuate 38 seriously wounded fighters from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, in exchange for Russian prisoners of war. However, The UN’s human rights council has passed a resolution to investigate alleged abuses by Russian troops in parts of Ukraine formerly under their control, with a view to holding those responsible to account.