Snake Island

Ukraine has said it has caused “significant losses” to the Russian military in airstrikes on Zmiinyi Island, also known as Snake Island, in the Black Sea.

About Zmiinyi Island

• Zmiinyi Island, also known as Snake or Serpent Island, is a small piece of rock less than 700 metres from end to end, that has been described as being “X-shaped”.
• It is located 35 km from the coast in the Black Sea, to the east of the mouth of the Danube and roughly southwest of the port city of Odessa.
• The island, which has been known since ancient times and is marked on the map by the tiny village of Bile that is located on it, belongs to Ukraine. 
• Significance in Russia-Ukraine conflict: If Russian troops succeed in occupying Snake Island and set up their long-range air-defence systems, they will control the sea, land and air in the north-west part of the Black Sea and in the south of Ukraine.
  
  

Historical background:

• Historically, Snake Island was Romanian territory until it was ceded in 1948 to the Soviet Union, which used it as a radar base.
• As Romania came under Soviet influence until 1989, Bucharest accepted the arrangement.
• Ukraine took control with the fall of communism and eventually in 2009 the International Court of Justice drew up the island's territorial limits, giving Romania almost 80% of the Black Sea continental shelf near the island, and Ukraine the rest.
• Snake Island is not just of strategic use, because this part of the Black Sea is rich in hydrocarbon resources - so The Hague ruling means both countries possess reserves of petroleum and gas.
• It may seem to be a small clump of rock with little obvious value, but its fate is a major element of Russia's war.

The Black Sea:

• The famed water body bound by Ukraine to the north and northwest, Russia and Georgia to the east, Turkey to the south, and Bulgaria and Romania to the west, which links to the Sea of Marmara through the Bosphorus and then to the Aegean through the Dardanelles, has traditionally been Russia’s warm water gateway to Europe.
• For Russia, the Black Sea is both a stepping stone to the Mediterranean as well as a strategic buffer between NATO and itself.
• Domination of the Black Sea region is a geostrategic imperative for Moscow, both to project Russian power in the Mediterranean and to secure the economic gateway to key markets in southern Europe.
• Russia has been making efforts to gain complete control over the Black Sea since the Crimean crisis of 2014.
• The domination of the Black Sea has been a major Russian objective of the ongoing war, along with the land bridge to connect Russia and Crimea.
• Cutting Ukrainian access to the Black Sea will reduce it to a landlocked country and deal a crippling blow to its trade logistics.