KYIV
\nUkrainian border guards placed a new sign on Snake Island this weekend, recalling the early hours of Russia\u2019s invasion when a comrade on the strategic Black Sea outcrop used a choice phrase to refuse to surrender to a warship.
\n\u201cThe next border sign will be installed in our Ukrainian Crimea after its liberation by the defense forces of Ukraine,\u201d a uniformed man said, standing before a post painted blue and yellow like the country\u2019s flag, in a video shared on Facebook late on Saturday by the head of the border service, Serhiy Deineko.
\nTiny Snake Island became synonymous with Ukrainian resistance in the first hours of the Feb. 24, 2022 invasion, when Russian officers on the Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva radioed Ukrainian guards stationed there and ordered them to surrender or die.
\nOne of them radioed back \u201cRussian warship, go f*** yourself.\u201d
\nThe phrase became a national slogan, depicted on Ukrainian billboards, T-shirts, and eventually a postage stamp.
\nThe strategic island overlooks sea lanes to Odesa, Ukraine\u2019s main Black Sea port.
\nOn April 14, 2022, two Ukrainian missiles struck the Moskva, the biggest warship sunk in combat for 40 years. Russia says one sailor was killed in an accident. Western experts say they believe around half of the crew of about 450 perished at sea.
\nOn June 30, Russia abandoned Snake Island after taking heavy losses trying to defend it. It called its withdrawal another \u201cgoodwill gesture.\u201d
\nRussia still holds swathes of territory in eastern and southern Ukraine. However, Ukraine is pressing ahead with a counteroffensive in which it claimed further progress on Saturday.
\n\u201cHistorical justice has been restored,\u201d Deineko said in his Facebook post. \u201cUkraine will definitely win!!!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV Ukrainian border guards placed a new sign on Snake Island this weekend, recalling the early hours of Russia\u2019s invasion when a comrade on the strategic Black Sea outcrop used a choice phrase to refuse to surrender to a warship. \u201cThe next border sign will be installed in our Ukrainian Crimea after its liberation by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349142,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-349115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n