“KABOOM! No Russian troops on the Snake Island anymore.” That was how Andriy Yermak, head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, announced on June 30, 2022 that Moscow had given up a small but symbolic piece of the Black Sea.
Russia’s defense ministry put it differently. In its statement, the garrison left “as a gesture of goodwill,” its tasks on the island finished. The ministry tied the pullout to grain, saying it showed Russia was “not impeding UN efforts to organise a humanitarian corridor to ship agricultural products from Ukraine.” It also placed the next move on Kyiv, arguing that Ukraine had failed to clear mines from its own coast and that the “ball is now in Ukraine’s court.”
Ukraine rejected that account. According to Voice of America, Ukrainian forces hit the island with missiles and artillery overnight, and the remaining Russian troops fled in speedboats. Al Jazeera noted that the announcement followed an intensified Ukrainian campaign against the outpost.
From the first day of the invasion
The island had been in Russian hands since the opening phase of the war. It entered public memory on February 24, 2022, when Ukrainian border guards refused a Russian warship’s demand to surrender. Their reply became a rallying cry across the country. Ukraine later sank the Russian flagship Moskva with a missile strike and issued a commemorative stamp to mark the exchange.
Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhny credited the defenders of the Odessa region, who in his words “took maximum measures to liberate a strategically important part of our territory.”
The grain argument
The timing mattered. Ukrainian grain exports had been blocked since the invasion began, with more than 20 million tonnes sitting in silos, Al Jazeera reported. Russia and Ukraine together supply nearly one-third of the world’s wheat, and UN estimates cited by the outlet warned that up to 181 million people in 41 countries could face food crisis or famine without a deal. Talks to restart shipments were under way, and Putin had said Russia was ready to allow unobstructed exports from Ukrainian ports in coordination with Turkey.
Observers outside Moscow were not persuaded by the framing. VOA reported that international monitors dispute the claim that Russia leaves Ukrainian exports alone. Peter Dickinson of the Atlantic Council saw a pattern: Russia had described its retreat from northern Ukraine in late March the same way, after losing the Battle for Kyiv. His verdict on the island pullout: “Ukrainians will be hoping for many more such ‘goodwill gestures’ in the weeks ahead.”
The wider picture that day
Putin said that “nothing has changed” in his war aims, which he described as the “liberation” of the Donbas and Russia’s security. Western leaders at a NATO summit in Madrid, including President Biden, pledged further military and humanitarian support, and Britain announced an additional $1 billion package covering air defense, unmanned aerial vehicles and other equipment for Ukrainian forces.
Zelenskyy thanked London, calling Britain a “true friend and strategic partner.”
Sources
- Russia withdraws from Ukraine's Snake Island in Black Sea
- Russia Retreats from Ukraine's Snake Island (Voice of America)
- Goodwill gestures and de-Nazification: Decoding Putin's Ukraine war lexicon (Atlantic Council, Peter Dickinson)
