Rear Admiral Sidyakin told what is the value of Zmeiny Island for the Armed Forces of Russia and Ukraine
The Russian Defense Ministry announced the voluntary withdrawal of the military from the Ukrainian island of Zmeiny. "Newspaper.Ru" together with experts, I figured out what is the value of the Snake from a military point of view and why it was first occupied and then left.
"On June 30, as a step of goodwill, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation completed the fulfillment of their tasks on Zmeiny Island and withdrew the garrison there. Thus, it has been demonstrated to the world community that the Russian Federation does not hinder the efforts of the UN to organize a humanitarian corridor for the export of agricultural products from the territory of Ukraine," said the official representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov.
On February 24, 2022, during a special operation, Ukraine lost control of the island. At the same time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine initially reported that after refusing to lay down their arms, 13 border guards who were on the island were destroyed. Later it turned out that they were captured by the Russian military.
The strategic value of Zmeiny Island lies in its position - it is 35-40 km from the coast of Romania, where US Air Force aircraft, including fighter aircraft, are based. In addition, this is a direct direction to the mouth of the Danube, which flows here into the Black Sea, through which it is possible to move both barges with weapons and agricultural products.
"No warship or transport vessel will pass unnoticed by the island, located 140 kilometers away from Odessa. The Ukrainian military used the Burevestnik-1 radar on the island with a detection range of 40 nautical miles (just over 74 km) for large naval vessels. This equipment allowed them to observe both the sea and the mouth of the Danube," he told the newspaper.En" retired Rear Admiral Valery Sidyakin.
According to a number of Western and Ukrainian media, before the Russian army took control of Zmeiny Island, in addition to Ukrainian border guards, there were also American military personnel who had equipment that allowed them to communicate with RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft and B52H Stratofortress strategic bombers capable of carrying Tomahawk cruise missiles.
"In Soviet times, a radar company of the air defense forces and a special platoon of the coastal surveillance system of the Navy were located on the island. Their task was to cover the approaches to Odessa from the sea by NATO ships and control the airspace in this region. Zmeiny, after becoming part of Ukraine, began to look the other way, and the Ukrainian military already provided
the interests of the North Atlantic Alliance," he told the newspaper.Ru" military expert, captain of the 1st rank of the reserve Viktor Makarov.
At the same time, the expert stressed that the island is a very small bridgehead, where it is not possible to place large weapons and launchers of operational and tactical missiles, including Iskander, or air defense/missile defense systems such as S-300 or S-400.
"There is such a thing in military slang as "reference points", which mean places where key positions are occupied. The beginning of the Russian special operation was marked by access to such benchmarks - to Chernigov, Kharkov, to the outskirts of Kiev, to Kherson and to the island of Snake. At these points, the Russian army kept the APU in suspense, which allowed it to focus efforts on the Donbass," he told the newspaper.Ru" political scientist Alexander Zimovsky.
The expert added that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have achieved this goal. "The AFU could not put forward additional forces to the Donbass, and their infrastructure was destroyed by the Russian army with the help of precision weapons," Zimovsky believes.
Rear Admiral Sidyakin, in turn, believes that control over the Snake did not give NATO countries the opportunity to consider intervening in the conflict at the first stage of the special operation.
"If the NATO alliance decided to intervene in the situation in Ukraine, it would establish a sea corridor with one of the few Ukrainian ports that can be used militarily, and this is Odessa. Control over the Snake stopped this possibility initially. The task has been completed, but the island is not interesting as a springboard for an offensive," the rear admiral concluded.
Victor Sokirko
