Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
It is just 46 acres of rock and grass with no fresh water (and no snakes either), but Snake Island in the Black Sea has taken on a totemic significance in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
The isle -- known as Zmiinyi Ostriv in Ukrainian -- lies around 48 kilometres off the coast of Ukraine and close to the sea lanes leading to the Bosphorus and Mediterranean.
Moscow has never laid claim to Snake Island, and it's a long way from any part of the Russian mainland. It's over 180 miles from Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014. In no geographical or historical sense could Russia claim it as their own.
But history be damned because it has strategic value and the Russians clearly thought it would be easy pickings. Even before the conflict, Ukraine knew that it was vulnerable. Last year, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy flew to Snake Island, where are there are no voters but some sheep, to emphasize that it mattered. "This island, like the rest of our territory, is Ukrainian land, and we will defend it with all our might," he said.
The Russians went for Snake Island on the very first day of the war in late February, when a now famous exchange between its Ukrainian defenders and the Russian navy transpired. Ordered to surrender, the small detachment of sailors on the island radioed back, "Russian warship, go f**k yourself," an exchange that became a motif of Ukrainian resistance.
But Snake Island has far more than a symbolic importance. Allow the Russians to establish facts-on-the-rocks there, and Ukraine would no longer be able to guarantee the freedom of sea lanes between the port of Odesa and the rest of the world. It's through Odesa that much of Ukraine's agricultural wealth travels to global markets.
Ukraine's defence intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said Friday that whoever holds Snake Island controls "the surface and to some extent the air situation in southern Ukraine."
"Whoever controls the island can block the movement of civilian vessels in all directions to the south of Ukraine at any time," Budanov added.
For that reason alone, Ukraine has vowed that even if it can't immediately retake the territory it will deny it to the Russians.
In a series of attacks in the last 10 days its drones and other assets have attacked Russian units trying to consolidate their presence on the island.
Satellite imagery from May 12 shows a landing ship submerged close to the island's only quay and Ukraine says it struck two patrol boats nearby as well.
At the weekend other imagery showed two columns of smoke rising from the island. One is thought to have been from an Mi-8 helicopter that had been bringing in Russian marines. It was targeted by a missile according to drone video released by the Ukrainian military, which has also published footage of anti-aircraft installations on the island being attacked.
The Odesa Regional Military Administration claimed on Thursday that a Russian support ship, the 'Vsevolod Bobrov' was on fire and being towed to Sevastopol from the area of Snake Island. The claim remains unverified by CNN and Russia has denied any losses around the island.
So why are the Russians expending so much effort on holding Snake Island? Because it has the potential to be an unsinkable, if static, aircraft carrier, crammed with electronic warfare and anti-ship capabilities. On Thursday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence said the Russians were trying to "improve their position on the island in an effort to block Ukrainian maritime communications and capabilities in the northwestern Black Sea, particularly toward Odesa."
Budanov also pointed out that Snake Island could also be useful to the Russians if they wished to reinforce their presence in the breakaway region of Transnistria in Moldova, which is run by a pro-Russian administration and where some 1,500 Russian troops are based.
Snake Island has actually been fought over before, but only in the courts. Romania and Ukraine had a long-running territorial dispute over the island and the surrounding seabed, which may contain hydrocarbon potential. The International Court of Justice finally determined the island's status, and the borders of Ukraine's and Romania's exclusive economic zones in 2009.
This time around, it seems extremely unlikely that the fate of Snake Island will be decided in a court.
____
Do you have any questions about the attack on Ukraine? Email dotcom@bellmedia.ca.
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.