(CNN)Russian troops leftSnake Islandin the Black Sea, Ukrainian troops said Thursday Said, it was a "successful" operation after doing what they said.
Known in Ukraine as Zmiinyi Island Ostrib, Snake Island is about 30 miles (48 km) from the Ukrainian coast, near the sea route leading to the Bosphorus Strait and the Mediterranean Sea.
On Monday, Ukrainian troops said it attacked the island's second missile system and multiple Russian personnel in their efforts to keep them away.
In a short telegram post on Thursday, the Ukrainian Operational Command South said, "The enemy rushed to evacuate the remnants of the garrison on two speedboats and probably left the island." Stated.
Ukrainian Presidential Secretary Andrie Jermac said in a telegram post that the Ukrainian army "has carried out a remarkable operation."
Valerii Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Army, later said in a telegram that the "occupants" left after "we couldn't stand the fire of our cannons, missiles and airstrikes."
He said in honor of the people behind the production of the Ukrainian self-propelled howitzer "Bodogan", "played an important role in the liberation of the island" and "foreign partners".
Zaluzhniy also told Ukrainian troops in the Odesa region, to which Snake Island belongs, "to free a strategically important part of our territory." We have taken the utmost measures. "
However, Russia has told a slightly different story about what happened on the island.
Russian spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a briefing that his army had left the island "as a gesture of goodwill."
He added, "The troops of the Russian Federation have completed their assigned missions on Snake Island and have withdrawn the garrison army operating there."
Konashenkov hinted that the withdrawal of Russian troops should facilitate the passage of grain. Part of the Black Sea by Russia.
However, the Ukrainian government rejected the Russian version of the case, and Yermak blamed the explanation.
"In Russia, they describe the alleged withdrawal of troops from Snake Island and present it as a" good faith gesture. " Similarly, Russia does not interfere with the humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian grain exports. But this is all a complete fake, "Yermak said on his official telegram channel.
"First, Ukrainian troops knocked out Russians from Zmiinyi Island," Yermak added. "Second, Russians are bombarding warehouses with our grain. In the morning, warehouses in the Dnipropetrovsk region were bombarded."
Ukraine's Defense Intelligence Director, Kirilo Budanov, said in May that anyone who owns Snake Island controls "the surface of southern Ukraine and some atmospheric conditions."
"Anyone who controls the island can block the movement of civilian vessels to southern Ukraine at any time," Budanov added.
Last year, President Volodymyr Zelensky flew to Snake Island, where there are no voters but sheep, and emphasized that it was important. "This island, like the rest of our territory, is the land of Ukraine and we will do our best to protect it," he said.
