LVIV, Ukraine — One of the most iconic episodes of the nearly 12-week-old war in Ukraine took place in its first few hours, when the crew of a massive Russian missile cruiser demanded the surrender of a small contingent of Ukrainian troops stationed on Snake Island, a rocky Black Sea outcropping measuring less than a square mile.
In a radio transmission that subsequently went viral, one of the defenders delivered a pungently profane response that has been most commonly translated as: "Russian warship, go f--- yourself."
Coming at a moment when much of the world expected Ukraine's swift collapse in the face of invasion by its larger neighbor, the raunchy, almost jaunty expression of defiance helped power the underdog narrative that has proved invaluable to the country's war effort.
