Ukraine president Zelensky visits Snake Island as war enters 500th day

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has visited the tiny Black Sea Snake Island whose defenders challenged a Russian warship at the start of the Russo-Ukraine War, as the conflict enters its 500th day.

In an undated video clip posted on social media, he said: “Today, we are on Snake Island, which the occupiers will never invade, like all of Ukraine, because we are a country of the brave”.

I want to thank from here, from this place of victory, every soldier of ours for these 500 days," the Ukrainian president added in the clip in which he appeared arriving on the island by boat and laying flowers at a monument.

Moscow took control of the island shortly after the start of the war on February 24, 2022.

The small Snake Island is considered a strategic area in the Black Sea, which allows for the formation of serious and exposed threats at the same time.

This island has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance. From the first day of the war, the Russians attacked it to seize it.