Kirill Budanov

“Well, what kind of” goodwill gesture “? There are all corpses [было] dotted,” Budanov answered.

He said that it was important to free the island, because all ships must pass by it. Therefore, whoever controls Snake Island controls all trade in the region, Budanov explained.

“Until we liberated Snake Island by force, there was no movement of the merchant fleet. As soon as we liberated it, everything started working again. With restrictions, problems, but it started working,” he said.

Budanov said that the development of the operation to liberate the island began in March 2022. Representatives of the Main Intelligence Directorate and the SBU took part in the operation. Vessels of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and helicopters of army aviation were also used.

“We worked with maps, satellite images, our electronic intelligence units were involved, unmanned aircraft units for constant monitoring and control … We used, by the way, units of the Air Force, which attacked the island before the landing of the first wave of troops,” – Budanov said.

He acknowledged that the landing of Ukrainian troops from helicopters failed several times.

“Because when helicopters approached after processing the territory by Air Force aircraft, which, in our opinion, should have completely suppressed the air defense forces, covering the island, nevertheless [оккупанты] fired anti-aircraft missiles – and helicopters in the air, evading the missiles, retreated with the troops back,” Budanov said.

The head of Ukrainian intelligence noted that the invaders acted professionally.

“We had the same problems. Objectively, we didn’t have enough strength to put the squeeze on at that moment … But we put the squeeze on over time,” Budanov said.

Context:

Russian troops captured Zmeiny Island on the first day of a full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. For several months there were battles for him. The Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed either the equipment or the personnel of the occupation troops.

The Russian military left the island in the summer of 2022. On June 30, the operational command “South” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that after another strike on the island, the invaders hastily evacuated the remnants of the garrison by two speed boats and left Zmeiny. The General Staff noted that the Armed Forces of Ukraine completely liberated the Odessa region from the invaders.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that the Russian army had completed all military tasks on the island, and called the departure of the invaders from Zmeinoye a “goodwill step”, and then (July 1) they dropped phosphorus bombs on the island.

On July 7, the Ukrainian military reported that the flag of Ukraine had been raised over the island.

2023-06-30 19:46:41


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