Zürcher Nachrichten - Russia quits Snake Island, weakening blockade of Ukraine ports

EUR -
AED 4.02547
AFN 78.958383
ALL 99.102869
AMD 431.181955
ANG 1.961978
AOA 1003.890567
ARS 1184.765046
AUD 1.813586
AWG 1.97271
AZN 1.867466
BAM 1.955265
BBD 2.22659
BDT 133.983319
BGN 1.957778
BHD 0.412787
BIF 3277.602688
BMD 1.09595
BND 1.474296
BOB 7.619914
BRL 6.405394
BSD 1.102698
BTN 94.079244
BWP 15.358795
BYN 3.608812
BYR 21480.619234
BZD 2.215094
CAD 1.559263
CDF 3148.664634
CHF 0.944431
CLF 0.02729
CLP 1047.223301
CNY 7.980215
CNH 7.994999
COP 4582.945323
CRC 557.847278
CUC 1.09595
CUP 29.042674
CVE 110.234821
CZK 25.256829
DJF 196.376238
DKK 7.461451
DOP 69.640934
DZD 146.03502
EGP 55.406831
ERN 16.439249
ETB 145.347308
FJD 2.537019
FKP 0.848847
GBP 0.850992
GEL 3.01429
GGP 0.848847
GHS 17.092321
GIP 0.848847
GMD 78.364643
GNF 9543.387299
GTQ 8.51067
GYD 230.706839
HKD 8.520518
HNL 28.214276
HRK 7.531044
HTG 144.290497
HUF 405.95125
IDR 18351.682095
ILS 4.102536
IMP 0.848847
INR 93.739724
IQD 1444.604509
IRR 46139.49374
ISK 144.852129
JEP 0.848847
JMD 173.912388
JOD 0.776923
JPY 161.033451
KES 142.530979
KGS 95.094267
KHR 4414.791359
KMF 493.729615
KPW 986.354973
KRW 1599.550347
KWD 0.337323
KYD 0.918948
KZT 559.11693
LAK 23885.460858
LBP 98806.249733
LKR 326.960488
LRD 220.54962
LSL 21.028443
LTL 3.236056
LVL 0.66293
LYD 5.33354
MAD 10.502325
MDL 19.485665
MGA 5113.600046
MKD 61.518158
MMK 2300.773509
MNT 3844.69323
MOP 8.828083
MRU 43.97796
MUR 48.956499
MVR 16.881727
MWK 1912.176502
MXN 22.397605
MYR 4.862772
MZN 70.042575
NAD 21.028443
NGN 1679.894432
NIO 40.578891
NOK 11.801632
NPR 150.52679
NZD 1.958628
OMR 0.421635
PAB 1.102798
PEN 4.052091
PGK 4.551754
PHP 62.891131
PKR 309.568949
PLN 4.273706
PYG 8840.579707
QAR 4.019799
RON 4.977847
RSD 117.117937
RUB 92.974546
RWF 1589.164933
SAR 4.112539
SBD 9.114284
SCR 15.716697
SDG 658.12198
SEK 10.951065
SGD 1.474715
SHP 0.861245
SLE 24.933268
SLL 22981.523891
SOS 630.227462
SRD 40.162734
STD 22683.951476
SVC 9.649358
SYP 14249.362274
SZL 21.036241
THB 37.713872
TJS 12.003414
TMT 3.835825
TND 3.376876
TOP 2.566829
TRY 41.607525
TTD 7.469955
TWD 36.360884
TZS 2949.992378
UAH 45.388374
UGX 4030.896458
USD 1.09595
UYU 46.647229
UZS 14248.099286
VES 76.89351
VND 28280.988741
VUV 133.834687
WST 3.068195
XAF 655.777467
XAG 0.037037
XAU 0.000361
XCD 2.96186
XDR 0.815577
XOF 655.777467
XPF 119.331742
YER 269.220506
ZAR 20.960317
ZMK 9864.868719
ZMW 30.57363
ZWL 352.89544
  • JRI

    -0.8600

    11.96

    -7.19%

  • BCC

    0.8100

    95.44

    +0.85%

  • RELX

    -3.2800

    48.16

    -6.81%

  • RBGPF

    69.0200

    69.02

    +100%

  • SCS

    -0.0600

    10.68

    -0.56%

  • BCE

    0.0500

    22.71

    +0.22%

  • CMSD

    0.1600

    22.83

    +0.7%

  • RIO

    -3.7600

    54.67

    -6.88%

  • BTI

    -2.0600

    39.86

    -5.17%

  • CMSC

    0.0300

    22.29

    +0.13%

  • GSK

    -2.4800

    36.53

    -6.79%

  • NGG

    -3.4600

    65.93

    -5.25%

  • VOD

    -0.8700

    8.5

    -10.24%

  • AZN

    -5.4600

    68.46

    -7.98%

  • RYCEF

    -1.5500

    8.25

    -18.79%

  • BP

    -2.9600

    28.38

    -10.43%

Russia quits Snake Island, weakening blockade of Ukraine ports
Russia quits Snake Island, weakening blockade of Ukraine ports / Photo: GABRIEL BOUYS - AFP

Russia quits Snake Island, weakening blockade of Ukraine ports

Russian troops have abandoned their positions on a captured Ukrainian island, a major setback to their invasion effort that weakens their blockade of Ukraine's ports, defence officials said on Thursday.

Text size:

The news from the Black Sea came as NATO leaders wrapped up their summit in Madrid, with US President Joe Biden announcing $800 million in new weapons to help Ukraine fight off Russia's invasion.

"We are going to stick with Ukraine, and all of the alliance are going to stick with Ukraine, as long as it takes to make sure they are not defeated by Russia," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, compared the new diplomatic low to the return of the Cold War, telling reporters: "As far as an Iron Curtain is concerned, essentially it is already descending... The process has begun."

But there may be a possible opening: Indonesia's President Joko Widodo said, after meeting Putin in Moscow, that he had given the Russian leader a message from their Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.

Snake Island became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance in the first days of the war, when the rocky outcrop's defenders told a Russian warship that called on them to surrender to "go f*ck yourself," an incident that spurred a defiant meme.

It was also a strategic target, sitting aside shipping lanes near Ukraine's port of Odessa. Russia had attempted to install missile and air defence batteries while under fire from drones.

Now, however, Ukraine has begun to receive longer range missiles and artillery, and the Russian position on Snake Island seems to have become untenable.

- 'Strategically important' -

"In the end, it will prove impossible for Putin to hold down a country that will not accept his rule," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, warning the Russian president that any eventual peace deal would be on Ukraine's terms.

"We've seen what Ukraine can do to drive the Russians back. We've seen what they did around Kyiv and Kharkiv, now on Snake Island."

The Russian defence ministry statement described the retreat as "a gesture of goodwill" meant to demonstrate that Moscow will not interfere with UN efforts to organise protected grain exports from Ukraine.

But Kyiv claimed it as a win. "They always downplay their defeats this way," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter.

"I thank the defenders of Odessa region who took maximum measures to liberate a strategically important part of our territory," Valeriy Zaluzhny, the Ukraine military's commander-in-chief, said on Telegram.

In peacetime, Ukraine is a major agricultural exporter, but Russia's invasion has damaged farmland and seen Ukraine's ports seized, razed or blockaded -- threatening grain importers in Africa with famine.

Western powers have accused Putin of using the trapped harvest as a weapon to increase pressure on the international community, and Russia has been accused of stealing grain.

- 'Direct threat' -

On Thursday, a ship carrying 7,000 tonnes of grain sailed from Ukraine's occupied port of Berdyansk, said the regional leader appointed by the Russian occupation forces.

Evgeny Balitsky, the head of the pro-Moscow administration, said Russia's Black Sea ships "are ensuring the security" of the journey, adding that the port had been de-mined.

Separately, the Russian defence ministry said its forces are holding more than 6,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war who have been captured since the February 24 invasion.

The conflict in Ukraine has dominated the NATO summit in Madrid, where the leaders said Russia "is the most significant and direct threat to allies' security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area".

This came as NATO officially invited Sweden and Finland to join the alliance, and Biden announced new deployments of US troops, ships and planes to Europe.

Biden said the US move was exactly what Putin "didn't want" -- and Moscow, facing fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces equipped with Western arms, reacted with predictable fury.

Putin accused the alliance of seeking to assert its "supremacy", telling journalists in the Turkmenistan capital of Ashgabat that Ukraine and its people are "a means" for NATO to "defend their own interests."

"The NATO countries' leaders wish to... assert their supremacy, their imperial ambitions," Putin added.

- 'As long as it takes' -

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed Putin's comments as "ridiculous" and said the Russian leader "has made imperialism the goal of his politics".

NATO leaders have funnelled billions of dollars of arms to Ukraine and faced a renewed appeal from Zelensky for more long-range artillery.

"Ukraine can count on us for as long as it takes," NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told the summit, which ends Thursday, as he announced a new strategic overview that focuses on the Moscow threat.

The document, updated for the first time since 2010, warned the alliance "cannot discount the possibility" of an attack on its members.

Russian missiles continued to rain down on cities across Ukraine.

The city of Lysychansk in the eastern Donbas region -- the current focus of Russia's offensive -- is also facing sustained bombardment.

The United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine said on Thursday 16 million Ukrainians were in need of humanitarian aid.

burs-dc/jm

M.Hug--NZN