Ukraine has published new footage appearing to show one of its vessels firing on a Russian military aircraft in the Black Sea as Kyiv ramps up the pressure on Moscow forces in the region.
A Russian jet had attempted to attack Ukrainian warships with a missile that failed to hit its target, Ukraine's Main Directorate of Directorate of Intelligence wrote on Telegram on Wednesday.
Ukraine fired at the aircraft and damaged the Russian plane close to Zmiinyi Island, also known as Snake Island, the Main Directorate said, sharing a clip of a vessel firing a projectile that disappears from shot. The military aircraft then immediately headed towards the nearest Russian airfield, the agency added.
Newsweek could not independently verify battlefield reports, nor when or where the clip was filmed. The Russian Defense Ministry has been contacted for comment.
Moscow's fighters had targeted Snake Island in the first hours of the invasion effort beginning on February 24, 2022. But Ukrainian personnel on the Black Sea outpost quickly became famous for an expletive-laden response to a Russian warship's demands for surrender.
Clashes between Russian and Ukrainian troops around Snake Island hit the headlines again last June, when Ukraine reclaimed the outpost after Russia said it was retreating from the island as a gesture of "goodwill."
"Russia's Armed Forces completed their tasks on Snake Island and withdrew the garrison stationed there," a Russian defense ministry spokesperson said in late June. Ukraine also dealt a blow to Russia's navy when it took out Moscow's Black Sea flagship, the Moskva, in mid-April. Moscow chalked the loss of the Moskva up to a fire onboard, but Ukraine said it had struck the vessel with anti-ship missiles.
Shortly before Ukraine reclaimed Snake Island, the head of Kyiv's military intelligence agency, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, described the outpost as "strategically important" for civilian, trade and military objectives.
"Whoever controls the island can at any moment block the movement of civilian vessels in all directions to the south of Ukraine" and also attack western Ukraine, Budanov said in mid-May 2022.
With Ukraine's land offensive working to push back Russia's ground forces in eastern and southern Ukraine since early June, the Black Sea has also seen increasing strikes from both sides as another front opened up on the shores of southern Ukraine and the annexed Crimean peninsula.
Russian naval bases in the Black Sea, not least the Black Sea Fleet's facilities in Sevastopol, have come under repeated attack, typically by Ukrainian naval and airborne drones.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ellie Cook is a Newsweek security and defense reporter based in London, U.K. Her work focuses largely on the Russia-Ukraine ... Read more
