All Ukrainian border guards protecting a tiny island in the Black Sea from Russian invaders were killed yesterday after refusing to surrender to warmonger Vladimir Putin’s forces and defiantly telling a Kremlin warship: ‘Go f**k yourselves!’.
The small contingent of soldiers, reportedly 13 in number, were posted on Snake Island in the Odessa region near NATO ally Romania and were defending the territory after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine early Thursday morning.
In a radio message, the soldiers were told by a sailor on board the vessel: ‘This is Russian military warship. I suggest you lay down your weapons and surrender to avoid bloodshed and needless casualties. Otherwise, you will be bombed.’ However, the Ukrainian troops defiantly refused to give up the territory, and instead replied: ‘Go f**k yourselves!’.
The Russian soldiers on radio are heard muttering the curse back at the Ukrainians, before all the border guards were killed in an aerial bombardment. Their deaths were later acknowledged by Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky.
A video circulating on Twitter also appeared to show the moment that the island was shelled. It showed a Ukrainian soldier staring at a camera before a shell landed nearby.
On Thursday afternoon, Ukraine’s interior ministry had said Snake Island, which is also called Zmiinyi, had been attacked by Russian forces.
The island is ruled by Ukraine but sits just miles from the coast of Romania. Snake Island is strategically important because it will allow Russia to claim territorial waters stretching 12 nautical miles out to sea. They cover important shipping channels to the port cities of Odessa, Mykolaiv and Kherson.
After taking the island, Russia would have been able to cut off the shipping channels, isolating Ukraine from international markets and depriving its economy of vital trade revenues as it seeks to defend itself.
In other developments:
- Global markets tanked with Russia’s ruble sliding to its lowest value ever;
- The price of oil shot up to over $100 per barrel;
- The EU will freeze Russian assets, halt access to financial market and target ‘Kremlin interests’;
- G7 called Putin a ‘threat to global order’ vowing ‘severe and coordinated economic and financial sanctions’;
- Joe Biden announced new sanctions targeting Russian banks, exports and military;
- Russia’s largest bank Sberbank will be severed from the US financial system, and full sanctions are imposed on four other financial institutions;
- Boris Johnson called the invasion a ‘catastrophe for our continent’ and branded Putin a ‘dictator’;
- China repeated calls for talks but refusing to criticise Russia’s attack;
- Moldova declared a state of emergency;
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said invasion is ‘heavy blow’ to regional peace;
- NATO ambassadors scheduled an emergency meeting on Thursday;
- UN Security Council will discuss a resolution condemning the invasion;
- Ukraine demanded the world banish Russia from SWIFT banking system.
All Ukrainian border guards manning a tiny island in the Black Sea near Romania were killed on Thursday after telling a Russian warship to ‘go f*** yourselves’ when they were told to surrender
The small contingent of soldiers, allegedly 13 in number, were posted on Snake Island in the Odesa region and were defending the territory after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The island is ruled by Ukraine but sits just miles from the coast of NATO member Romania
All Ukrainian border guards manning the tiny Snake Island in the Black Sea near Romania were killed on Thursday after telling a Russian warship to ‘go f*** yourselves’ when they were ordered to surrender
Fire fighters are seen responding to a blaze at a residential building in Kyiv in the early hours of Friday
The Kyiv apartment block is seen ablaze on Friday morning. It is unclear what caused the fire
Kyiv was ablaze in the early hours of Friday as the city came under attack from Russia. Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashenko shared footage on social media of a blaze in what he said was the Darnitsky district of Kyiv, in the southeast of the city on the left bank of the Dnipro river
Ukraine’s capital was under bombardment in the early hours of Friday, with the skies ablaze as Putin’s tanks moved to within 20 miles of Kyiv.
Ukraine’s deputy defense ministry said that one missile was shot out of the sky by their anti-missile defense systems. Another missile struck a residential building in the city, the government said.
A Ukrainian jet, a SU-27, was shot down by a surface-to-air missile in a separate incident, the Ukrainian government said.
The country has 125 combat-capable aircraft, including 4th-generation fighter workhorses Sukhoi Su‑27 and Mikoyan MiG‑29, according to Military Balance 2021. Russia has more than 1,500 fighter jets.
Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashenko shared footage on social media of a blaze in what he said was the Darnitsky district of Kyiv, in the southeast of the city on the left bank of the Dnipro river.
It was unclear whether the Darnitsky fire was caused by the downed Ukrainian jet, or the Russian missiles.
Hours earlier, Zelensky raged at Western ‘cowards’ who failed to come to his aid, saying his country is being ‘left alone’ to face Russian troops. Officials warn that Kyiv will be seized this weekend.
In a video address to his nation after midnight, the president called his fallen compatriots ‘heroes’ after 137 were killed on the first day of fighting, and insisted he will stay until the bitter end.
He said: ‘They’re killing people and turning peaceful cities into military targets. It’s foul and will never be forgiven. We have been left alone to defend our state. Who is ready to fight alongside us? I don’t see anyone.
‘Who is ready to give Ukraine a guarantee of NATO membership? Everyone is afraid.’
He added that the enemy has already entered Kyiv and urged residents to be vigilant and observe curfew rules, acknowledging he was ‘target number one’.
The Ukrainian capital is expected to be surrounded by Russian forces this weekend and the country’s resistance effectively crippled, US security officials fear.
Troops are already closing in on the seat of Ukrainian power after taking control of the strategic Chernobyl nuclear power plant today, and will seize it within 96 hours, bringing a ‘new Iron Curtain’ down on Europe, Zelensky warned.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Putin plans to encircle Ukrainian forces in Kyiv and force them to either surrender or be destroyed, and the leadership of Ukraine could then fall in a week.
A former senior US intelligence officer told Newsweek: ‘After the air and artillery end and the ground war really starts, I think Kyiv falls in just a few days. The military may last slightly longer but this isn’t going to last long.’
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