Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the Black Sea island whose defenders challenged a Russian warship at the start of the invasion as the conflict enters its 500th day.
“Today we are on Serpent Island, which will never be conquered by the occupiers, like all of Ukraine, because we are the land of the brave,” the Ukrainian president said in a video released on social media on Saturday.
“I want to thank all our soldiers from here, from this place of victory, for these 500 days,” Zelensky said in the undated video, in which he appears to arrive on the island by boat and leave flowers at a memorial.
Moscow captured Serpent Island shortly after invading Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
An exchange of radio messages went viral at the time, when Ukrainian soldiers told the crew of the Russian warship that they demanded their surrender to “fuck off”. These Ukrainian soldiers were made prisoners of war, but later exchanged for Russian prisoners.
The recording of this exchange of messages went around the world and served as a motto for the Ukrainian resistance, even appearing on posters during support rallies abroad and on postage stamps.
The Russian ship involved, the Moskva, sank in April in the Black Sea after what Moscow said was an explosion on board. Ukraine said it hit the warship with missiles.
Ukrainian troops recaptured the island in June last year.
Nine thousand civilians killed since the start of the war
This Saturday, Zelensky joined Patriarch Bartholomew, leader of the world Orthodox, praying for the victims of the war after a regional trip, ending in Turkey, to rally support for next week’s NATO summit.
The UN has documented 9,000 civilian deaths, including 500 children, since the start of the war on February 24, 2022, although the true number is estimated to be significantly higher.
Noel Calhoun, deputy head of the UN Human Rights Observation Mission in Ukraine, said the 500th day of the conflict marked “another dark milestone in the war that continues to take a terrible toll on Ukrainian citizens”.
This official was referring to the six deaths announced this Saturday by the regional governor of Donetsk following a Russian attack.
Source: DN
