In yet another episode of the Ukrainian War engulfed by the conflict of versions, Russia abandoned the strategic and symbolic island of Cobra, in the northwest of the Black Sea, at dawn on Thursday (30).
Strategic because, tiny (almost three times smaller than the Vatican, the world’s smallest state) and a mere 35 km east of the Ukrainian-Romanian border, the mouth of the Danube River, it is an important maritime traffic control point.
Symbolic because, when it was taken by the Russians on the first day of the war, February 24, the 13 Ukrainian garrison based there famously radioed one of the enemy ships to “go f**k…” before being captured.
The phrase became an icon of Ukrainian resistance, romanticized by Kiev: soldiers, whom the government thought for days were dead, became national heroes. A contest was held to create a stamp in honor of the episode. The maligned vessel, the cruiser Moskva, was sunk in the biggest Russian naval loss of the conflict in April.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the evacuation was “a gesture of goodwill”. “In order to organize a humanitarian grain corridor as part of the implementation of joint agreements with the participation of the UN, Russia has decided to leave its positions,” the ministry said.
Russian forces left the island in two small boats. Moscow says Kiev now needs to clear the region’s mines to organize the export of more than 20 million tonnes of grain dammed in Odessa, its biggest port on the Black Sea.
The story may even be true, but it sounds strange. In recent weeks, the Russians had suffered at least two attacks on the island with missiles and drones. A Russian tug was sunk. The actions ended up being repelled, but they showed the continued focus on the spot.
Ukraine’s navy was wiped out, but the proximity to the coast allowed Kiev to strike with missiles and within range of its unmanned vehicles. On Thursday, Ukrainian media confirmed the Russian withdrawal and said there were reports that the invaders burned their facilities there, although there was no word on a grain deal.
Later, the Armed Forces said that the recapture of Cobra Island was the result of a renewed missile attack, which would have driven out the Russians. Again, despite the island base being well protected by anti-aircraft systems, the version could be real.
For now, the fact is that Russia has lost an important foothold if it tries to control the Black Sea coast. This was one of the Russians’ presumed objectives, a general inadvertently revealed in April after the conquest of the land corridor between the Donbass (east) and the annexed Crimea in 2014.
The corridor is established, but the focus of the Russian war today is in the Donbass, with advances towards the taking of 5% of the Lugansk province in the hands of Kiev and preparations for something even more complex, due to terrain factors, which is to capture the 40% remaining from neighboring Ukrainian Donetsk.
Control of the Black Sea, which is otherwise total by the Russians in its northern portion, is not essential for Moscow at this time. But if he wanted to conquer Odessa and the rest of the coast, the island was a very important point of control.
Returning to the field of symbolism, the Russian exit, whether by expulsion or voluntary, is rare good news for Kiev in recent weeks, and will be duly celebrated. As for the alleged agreement, it is worth remembering that demining Odessa can also be seen as a means of facilitating a future amphibious landing.
The food issue is one of the fronts of the war. The West accuses the government of Vladimir Putin of using the blockade of Ukraine as a weapon, pressing against the economic sanctions it suffers by threatening famine in places like Africa and causing inflation in the rest of the world. The Kremlin says the problem lies with Kiev.
