The small Ukrainian island of Zminy in the northwestern Black Sea, from which the Russian army announced its withdrawal on Thursday, has been overlooked more than once since the beginning of the Russian military operation in Ukraine.
This island with an area of just over 0.2 sq. km is located 35 km off the coast of the Odessa region in southwestern Ukraine on the border with Romania and until 2009 was the subject of a dispute between the two countries over its sovereignty.
On February 24, the first day of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, Kyiv announced the loss of control over the island, which is of strategic importance in terms of isolating Ukraine from the Black Sea and cutting off the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine. It.
Then the Kyiv authorities said that members of the island garrison died in battle with superior Russian forces, but soon the Russian defense established that the Ukrainian border guards who were on the island had laid down their arms and surrendered. refuting Kyiv’s accusations video of captured Ukrainian soldiers.
The following months saw vigorous Ukrainian attempts to retake Zmieny, as the Russian defense claimed to have shot down a number of Ukrainian planes and helicopters and disrupted an amphibious operation on Zmini Island, noting that Ukrainian troop losses resulted from the operations they had been conducting around Zmini during several days, also included about 30 drones and 30 fatalities.
In the early hours of June 20, the Kyiv regime again attempted to recapture Zemini with intense air and artillery strikes, followed by an amphibious operation.
But Russian defense has confirmed that its air defenses repelled the attack and shot down 13 drones, four Tochka-O missiles and 21 Uragan rocket launchers, while none of the Ukrainian weapons reached their targets on the island.
Due to the failure of their missile attack, the Ukrainian forces were forced to abandon the landing in Zmyny.
After the Ukrainian army suffered heavy losses and completed combat missions on the island, Moscow decided, as a goodwill gesture, to withdraw its troops from the island in order to facilitate international efforts to transport Ukrainian agricultural products to world markets and deprive Kyiv of the possibility of using the presence of Russian troops in Zmimini as a pretext for holding Russia responsible for the unsustainable process of grain exports, while Kyiv has not yet clarified the situation in the area.
Source: RT