Ukrainian forces have raised the country’s flag on Snake Island, a strategic and symbolic outpost in the Black Sea that Russian troops retreated from last week after months of heavy bombardment. “The military operation has been concluded, and … the territory, Snake Island, has been returned to the jurisdiction of Ukraine,” Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, told reporters. Ukraine has considered control of the island as a critical step in loosening Moscow’s blockade on its southern ports.
Leaders from dozens of countries, international organisations and the private sector gathered in Switzerland today to hash out a ‘Marshall plan’ to rebuild war-ravaged Ukraine. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who took part virtually, earlier warned that the work ahead in the areas that have been liberated alone was “really colossal”. “And we will have to free over 2,000 villages and towns in the east and south of Ukraine,” he said.
