Thirteen Ukrainian guards on Snake Island, a border island, who told a Russian warship ‘go f*** yourself’ when asked to surrender may still be alive.
Reports suggested the troops on the tiny Black Sea island had been killed by Russian shelling, and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said they would be remembered as martyrs.
However, it has now it emerged that the Ukrainians on Snake Rock may have survived the onslaught.
In video footage which quickly went viral, a Russian soldier warns the border guards that they will face a violent attack if they do not give up.
“I am a Russian warship,” a voice says. “I ask you to lay down your arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed and unnecessary deaths. Otherwise, you will be bombed.”
The Ukrainians responded: “Russian warship... go f*** yourself.”
The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine said in a statement posted to their Facebook page the guards may be alive, according to Mirror Online.
Shortly after the attack Russian media reported they were taken as prisoners from their base on Snake Island in the Black Sea to Sevastopol, a Crimean port city.
Ukrainian officials said in the Facebook post the border guards were attacked by Russian aircraft and weapons from the ship, and that they then lost communication with them.
It now appears it was assumed that the guards were killed.
On Friday, Russia’s defence ministry said 82 Ukrainian soldiers on the island had surrendered to them voluntarily. It made no mention of carrying out strikes or inflicting casualties.
Russian Major-General Igor Konashenkov stated how the servicemen on the island ‘laid down their arms and voluntarily surrendered to a unit of the Russian Armed Forces.’
Overnight in Ukraine night has seen major blasts at oil and gas facilities in Kyiv region and other locations, and a claim of a Russian strike on a radioactive dump in the capital.
There were reportedly strikes on an oil terminal in Rovenky, a coal mining city in the disputed Donbas region, near the southeastern Ukraine-Russia border.
A source said: “It could have possibly been a missile attack, our emergency services have left to the site.”
In Kyiv, Ukrainian sources claimed a Russian shell strike hit radioactive dump, saying: “The occupiers fired on a radioactive object in Kyiv,” said a report. “They hit the radioactive burial site…
“Although the radiation monitoring system failed, surveillance cameras recorded the shelling.”
A preliminary assessment indicated “no threat to people outside the sanitary protection zone”.
Russian defence sources claimed they had agreed with Ukrainian forces a pact to guarantee safety at Chernobyl nuclear power plant. However, radiation levels are described as normal.
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