On February 24, the first day of the invasion of Ukraine, Russian troops occupied Snake Island, a small but strategically important outpost in the Black Sea about 70 nautical miles south of Odessa. The 13 Ukrainian troops stationed there were reported to have “twice bravely repulsed the attacks of the Russian occupiers” but were unable to continue fighting because they ran out of ammunition.
Pictures of Ukrainian defenders defiantly giving a Russian warship the finger and audio of them telling it to “go fuck yourself” went viral. The defenders were believed to have all been killed and were posthumously honoured by the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky – but have subsequently been reported to have survived.
