February 24th, 2022- the Russian invasion of Ukraine begins.
News of the invasion has reached the small Ukrainian garrison on the strategically important
Snake Island.
13 border guards armed with only light weapons face off against the Russian Black Sea Flag
Ship, the mighty Moskva missile cruiser, and its accompanying patrol ship the Vasily Bykov.
What happens next will go down in military history and rally an entire nation to fight
off the Russian invasion.
Snake Island is a tiny spit of rock just off the southwestern coast of Ukraine.
It marks the very southernmost boundaries of Ukraine's territorial waters, and has only
one tiny settlement named Bile.
The tiny settlement only contains homes for the Ukrainian soldiers permanently stationed
there, who were first deployed there in 2007 in order to reinforce Ukraine's territorial
claim to coastal waters.
Caught up in a disupte with Romania, the International Court of Justice eventually ruled that Romania
was entitled to 80% of the disputed maritime area, with Ukraine getting the rest.
Ukraine accepted this judgment, but the soldiers remained there to help provide security for
the bountiful hydrocarbon resources just off Snake Island's coast.
When February's invasion rolled around, Russia wanted Snake Island for itself, and not just
for the oil wealth that lies in the waters around it.
Snake Island is located just off Ukraine's southernmost coasts, and in a perfect place
to control the flow of maritime traffic flowing to Ukraine's biggest ports.
Whoever controls Snake Island can help control the flow of trade goods in the Black Sea.
As the Russo-Ukrainian war kicked off, Snake Island became priority number one for the
Russian Black Sea Fleet.
If Russia could control this tiny island, a very costly amphibious invasion of Odessa
will no longer be necessary.
Given how Russian troops would go on to perform in the war and the inherent difficulty in
amphibious operations, one can only imagine the absolute disaster such an invasion would
have been.
But Snake Island is held by only 13 border guards, a task that even Russia's tinker-toy
soldiers can handle.
Especially when they are backed up by one of the Russian navy's most modern ships, the
missile cruiser Moskva- seen here in 2012 and seen here in 2022 shortly after the start
of the Snake Island campaign.
She's a powerful ship, manned with just shy of 500 sailors, anti-ship missiles, 64 surface-to-air
missiles for fleet air defense, a shipborne helicopter, and 130mm guns.
The Moskva is accompanied by the patrol ship Vasily Bykov.
It doesn't carry as many weapons as the Moskva but is still a deadly threat to the tiny garrison
on the island.
Armed with 76.2mm guns, cruise missile weapon packages, and automatic grenade launchers,
there is nothing even remotely comparable amongst the inventory of Snake Island's defenders.
At 1800 local time on February 24th, the Moskva and Vasily Bykov approach Snake Island.
The Russian captain calls over the radio to the Ukrainian garrison and offers them a chance
to surrender.
Without hesitation, border guar Roman Hrybov mutters a phrase that will echo throughout
Ukrainian history and rallied a nation to fight off its much bigger nation- “Russian
warship, go fuck yourself.”
Minutes later, the Moskva opened fire on Snake Island with her cannons, blasting the tiny
settlement.
Ukraine soon confirms that it has lost all communications with the island's garrison.
After a naval and aerial bombardment, Russian marines load up onto assault craft and make
landfall.
The garrison feared to be killed to the last man has some survivors which are taken prisoner
by Russian forces.
However, the fate of all thirteen men remains unknown, and Russia claims that they captured
as many as 83 enemy combatants, while Ukraine confirmed only 13 guards were present.
Given Russia's proclivity to inflate combat figures, Ukraine's figures are more trustworthy.
The Russians are now in control of Snake Island, and by default in control of all of Ukraine's
ports.
Without clear sea lanes Ukrainian trade is effectively shut off, a move with devastating
economic consequences for the nation.
It’s absolutely critical that Ukraine recapture this island if it doesn't want to be starved
into submission by Russia.
The next day a squadron of 16 Ukrainian patrol craft launch an attack on the Moskva and the
Vasily Bykov.
However, the smaller vessels are hopelessly outgunned, and dislodging the missile cruiser
off Snake Island is going to take much more than the few small vessels left in the Ukrainian
navy.
Russia claims six of the ten attacking vessels are sunk.
There's little that Ukraine can do but wait and reposition forces to attack Snake Island
indirectly.
If Ukraine can't hold it, then they're going to make sure that Russia can't either.
However, the first step is dislodging the Moskva from the area, thus removing the greatest
threat to a Ukrainian counterattack.
Meanwhile the rallying cry of “Russian warship, go fuck yourself” is being heard everywhere
from Washington D.C. to the front lines outside of Kyiv.
In response, the Russian Ministry of Defense posts an imange on its Telegram channel showing
a Russian warship with the words “Never anger a Russian warship” written on it.
A month later, Ukraine sends its response.
On the 14th of April, Ukraine launches an attack against the Moskva.
Details remain highly classified, but it's believed that the US provided targeting data
to two Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles.
Some sources believe that the Moskva was distracted by a Ukrainian drone, and that at least part
of its air defense equipment was not fully operational.
Thus the Moskva was in effect radar-blind to two Ukrainian anti-ship missiles sneaking
up from behind.
Russia claims that an errant cigarette caused an explosion which led to disaster.
However, the US backs Ukraine's claims that it used anti-ship missiles to sink the flag
ship of the Russian Black Sea fleet.
The Moskva would sink within hours of being struck, with some sailors rescued by a passing
Turkish ship.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky immediately declared the wreck a cultural heritage site.
The sinking of the Moskva is not just a massive embarrassment to the Russians, but also a
tactical disaster.
As the centerpiece of Russia's Black Sea naval air defense, the loss of the Moskva leaves
expeditionary Russian forces without any air cover.
Snake Island is simply too far from Russian bases in Crimea for fighters to arrive fast
enough to fend off Ukrainian air attacks.
Almost overnight, Snake Island becomes a free-fire zone for Ukrainian drones, who can now strike
without fear of being shot down.
Over the next month Ukraine launches an aerial campaign against Snake Island.
Using Bayraktar drones and its remaining air force, Ukraine attacks Snake Island and the
Russians garrisoned there with near impunity.
The Russians attempt to move air defense equipment to the island, but Ukraine manages to intercept
these shipments and destroy them before they can be unloaded.
Russia claims that the US is supplying Ukraine with direct intelligence support, to which
the US replies with something akin to “and what exactly are you going to do about it
if we are?”
The definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different
result.
Russia continues to try to move air defense equipment to the island while not establishing
control of the skies above it.
Predictably, Ukraine takes the opportunity to blast it into pieces, even destroying one
Tor air defense battery as it's being unloaded.
At this point, Russia is better off simply throwing the equipment they're trying to ship
off the end of the pier at their home base, because without air superiority the Ukrainans
are free to put steel on target from above.
But now long-range Ukrainian artillery joins the fight, firing from the mainland just a
few miles away.
Life for the Russians garrisoned there becomes a nightmare as even their supplies of food
and water are being destroyed from the air or blown up by artillery.
Much like the border guards that originally held the island, the Russian garrison can
do very little to defend itself.
The loss of Russian equipment every time they ship it to the island is so significant, that
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych claims that Russia's invasion of Snake Island
was the best possible news for Ukraine, as it put a convenient Russian target right in
the sights of Ukrainian guns.
The situation is getting desperate for the Russians, and on June 17th the Russian tug
Spasatel Vasily Bekh is dispatched to deliver badly needed supplies and reinforcements.
However the Ukrainian military responds by attacking the Russian tug with US-donated
Harpoon anti-sink missiles.
The tug sinks, though Russia doesn't comment on casualties.
Russian warships are now incredibly wary of approaching the waters near Snake Island.
With the US and Britain both having recently donated a large quantity of anti-ship missiles
that could be fired from shore, Ukrainian territorial waters have become treacherous
territory for Russia's growing fleet of involuntary submarines.
This means that Ukraine is finally able to launch an assault on three nearby gas platforms.
The Russians have installed radio jamming equipment here that has been hampering Ukrainian
operations.
With airwaves clear and the skies and seas clear of threats, Ukraine launches more air
strikes, destroying numerous military vehicles and what is likely a Pantsir-S1 air defense
vehicle.
Russia denies these claims, and instead Russian officials say that Russia had actually intercepted
every single incoming missile and bomb, destroyed 13 Ukrainian drones, repelled an amphibious
assault by Ukrainian soldiers, destroyed a Ukrainian mecha-Godzilla, and infiltrated
then destroyed a Ukrainian Death Star sent to retake the island.
The rest of the world would meet these claims of such a perfect performance by Russian troops
and equipment with obvious skepticism.
Ukraine would bring the receipts though, and on the 27th of June it releases video evidence
of its aircraft conducting precision strikes against Russian troops and equipment.
To add insult to injury, Ukraine once more destroys yet another Pantsir-S1 air defense
system.
Ukraine military command then confirms that there's an ongoing operation to attempt to
retake the island.
Russia once more denies that the air defense system designed to prevent air attacks from
destroying said air defense system, was in fact destroyed by the air attack it was designed
to prevent.
Instead Russia boasts that it had instead intercepted 12 Ukrainian rockets, destroyed
one Ukrainian Su-25, and an entire division of Ukrainian Space Marines.
Russia would attempt to lift the pressure on Snake Island by using its air force to
attack Ukrainian rocket and artillery positions along the southern Odesa Oblast.
The Su-35s attacked at least three positions, but the Ukrainians would claim the attacks
caused no damage.
Given that some of Russia's missiles are experiencing a failure rate as high as 60%, we have no
reason to doubt the Ukrainian claims.
However, if there was any skepticism about Ukraine's claims, it would soon be silenced.
One day later the Russians dispatch four Ka-52s to rescue stranded Russian forces.
Ukraine intercepts at least one of them.
The very next day Russian forces board two speed boats and retreat.
Ukraine claims that it has successfully driven off Russian forces.
It’s a major victory for the nation.
Russia meanwhiles denies this, and says that the soldiers stationed there had “completed
their assignment”.
If that assignment was to die a fiery death, then Russian forces performed admirably given
by the fact that Ukraine once forced them to retreat, showing Snake Island a smoking
wreck on the 30th of June 2022- the day Russian forces fled.
If Russia's claims that the soldiers had simply withdrawn after completing their task were
true, then those soldiers were certainly motivated to leave in a hurry, judging by the fact that
on July 1st the Russian Air Force bombed the island with phosphorus bombs, destroying much
of the equipment that had been 'accidentally' left behind.
Snake Island now stands as a monument to Ukrainian defiance and tenacity, and for Russian incompetence.
After losing its air defense cruiser, the Moskva, to the very threat it was designed
to defeat, the Black Sea was left with a massive air defense void.
Ukraine exploited this to full effect by bombing Russian garrison forces back to the stone
age.
In an ongoing display of tactical incompetence, Russia threw good money after bad by continuously
shipping large amounts of very expensive equipment to the island, giving Ukraine the opportunity
to inflict painful economic losses to Russia.
With the loss of Snake Island, Russia has in effect been neutered in the Black Sea,
and has lost the power projection capabilities which previously allowed it to control across
Ukrainian's ports.
However, the island was also of vital importance for intelligence gathering, allowing units
stationed there to listen in on the whole southwestern part of Ukraine.
In total, it's believed that Russia lost nearly $1 billion in equipment attempting to take
Snake Island.
Now go tell your grandmother you miss her and check out How Would US Respond to Russian
Nuclear Attack In Ukraine, or click this other video instead.