Snake Island has a special place in Ukrainian folklore, now more than ever. Her defiant defense–when a Russian warship was famously told to “go f*** yourself”–and then reclaim a nation in the early months of conflict with Russia, shattering the myth of the invaders’ superiority.
Now, battered by the winds of winter, it remains firmly in Ukrainian hands – a patch of rock that has both symbolic and strategic significance.
The CNN team became the first foreign media to visit the island since it was recaptured in June, and to speak with the leader of the operation that led to its liberation.
Snake Island, also known as Zmiinyi Island, is a few acres of rock and grass, treeless and difficult to access, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) off the Ukrainian coast, near its maritime border with Romania.
Getting there proves to be a challenge: an hour of jumping from wave to wave in a small boat, sprayed with mist, in sub-freezing temperatures. The Black Sea can be unforgiving, and so can its dangerous coastline. On the way back our boat got stuck on a sand bar, and it took six hours before we were transferred, one by one, to another ship in the dark.
Snake Island is now a desolate place, strewn with debris, its few buildings reduced to shells, its half-sunken pier battered by the tide. It is a graveyard of expensive military equipment – and is dotted with unexploded ordnance and mines. This is not a place for neglect.
The CNN team saw at least four different types of land mines, Russian Pantsir surface-to-air missile systems, and the Tor anti-aircraft complex nearly intact. The corpse of a Russian military helicopter was also hit.
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