![]() ![]() ![]() Nevertheless, the deployment there of surveillance equipment and aerial denial systems enable operations covering the entire northwestern Black Sea region. Hard ground and a lack of freshwater resources make permanent troop deployments challenging. The island has an area of 17 hectares, shaped roughly like the letter X. The episode later resulted in a popular internet meme. The island rose to international notoriety on February 24 after a small band of Ukrainian soldiers refused - in uncompromising language - to lay down their arms at the instruction of a Russian warship. Much like the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, it is geostrategically significant at the local, regional, and global levels. NATO allies should continue to support Ukraine to enhance its coastal defenses and protect the island with anti-ship Harpoon missiles, anti-aircraft Stinger weapons, and sophisticated radars and integrated command and control systems.įor a small clump of rock in the Black Sea, Snake Island has outsized importance.Keeping the territory under Ukrainian control is essential for maintaining global grain supplies, for the future exploitation of energy reserves in surrounding waters, and for wider regional security.This would have game-changing military and economic consequences for both Ukraine and NATO. Russia may try to seize the island again as a bargaining chip just before a cease-fire.Control has been fiercely contested ever since, with Russian troops eventually withdrawing on June 30. Russia occupied the island on day one of its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.Military control of the island and surrounding waters affects all shipping routes connecting Ukraine to the rest of the world through the Black Sea, as well as those linking continental Europe to the Black Sea basin through the Danube.Snake Island is a rocky outcrop less than one square kilometer in size but of huge geostrategic significance to the Black Sea and beyond. ![]()
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