Ukrainian soldiers tasked with defending the strategic Snake Island gave a defiant final message to the the Russian navy warship that urged them to surrender, according to an audio recording of the incident circulating on social media.
According to a purported audio exchange, as the Russians approached Snake Island, also known as Zmiinyi Island, the Russian officer said:
“This is a military warship. This is a Russian military warship. I suggest you lay down your weapons and surrender to avoid bloodshed and needless casualties. Otherwise, you will be bombed.”
A Ukrainian soldier responds: “Russian warship, go f*** yourself.”
Those were the final known words heard from the island.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that all 13 Ukrainian defenders were killed in a Russian bombardment on Thursday.
“All border guards died heroically but did not give up. They will be awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine posthumously,” Zelensky said.
Snake Island sits about 30 miles (48 kilometers) off the southern tip of the Ukrainian mainland in the northwestern Black Sea.
It’s about 185 miles (300 kilometers) west of Crimea, the Ukrainian territory that Russia annexed in 2014.
Though it is only about 46 acres (18 hectares) in size, a report last year from the non-partisan Atlantic Council think tank called it “key to Ukraine’s maritime territorial claims” in the Black Sea.
Highlighting its strategic importance, Zelensky chose it last year as the spot for an interview with Ukrainian media in advance of a summit to try to reverse Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the Atlantic Council report said.
Zelensky words to interviewers that day proved prophetic.
“This island, like the rest of our territory, is Ukrainian land, and we will defend it with all our might,” he said.
Meanwhile, describing the missile barrage in the capital of Kyiv as “horrific,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba drew comparisons with World War II. “Last time our capital experienced anything like this was in 1941 when it was attacked by Nazi Germany.”
“Ukraine defeated that evil and will defeat this one,” he added.
Zelenskiy said Russian troops were targeting both military and civilian targets.
Vowing to stay on in Kyiv and lead the resistance to the invasion, he said he had no doubt that Russian President Vladimir Putin was seeking to depose him with the attack on Kyiv.
“According to the information we have the enemy has marked me as target number 1, my family as target number 2. They want to undermine Ukraine politically by removing the head of state,” he said in an address to the nation, wearing a khaki army top.
He criticised Ukraine’s allies in the West for not doing enough to deter Putin.
“This morning we are defending our state alone. Like yesterday, the world’s most powerful forces are watching from afar. Did yesterday’s sanctions convince Russia? We hear in our sky and see on our earth that this was not enough,” he said.
Zelenskiy insisted Ukraine had not been defeated, claiming its forces had stopped Russian troops from advancing in “most directions.”
He said: “It will not be possible to destroy our character. Kalibr missiles are helpless against our freedom.”
The push for Kyiv comes roughly 24 hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale bombardment and invasion of Ukraine, calling on the country to disarm and drop its ambitions to join NATO.
Russia claimed its initial attack was devastating, knocking out 74 ground bases and 11 air bases.
Ukraine’s government confirmed 137 deaths and more than 300 injured. Kyiv also reported that Russian troops had seized the radioactive site of the former Chernobyl nuclear reactor.
“The nature of the military invasion indicates that the main purpose of the Kremlin regime is to block Kyiv, create a land corridor to the occupied Crimean peninsula and a self-proclaimed Transnistria,” the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in a note.
READ MORE: BATTLE FOR KYIV: Russian forces reach suburbs of Ukraine’s capital.
