General of the Ukrainian Armed Forces: “Ukraine is preparing to defend Zmeiny Island”
Snake Island is an economic gateway for Ukraine and its loss for the country will mean a stop in the work of the ports.
Former deputy chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant General Igor Romanenko, stated this on TV channel 7, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to him, the island is important for Ukraine for two reasons.
“Firstly, in military-strategic terms, because taking into account the fact that the Russians captured Crimea and captured rigs in the sea, the nearest oil production rig is located 25 kilometers from Zmeinoye. Therefore, if you imagine that, in addition to these towers and the waters around Crimea, Zmeiny Island will also be captured, then in fact this will block the normal economic work of the ports in the south of our country and the sea economic gates to Ukraine will actually close. That is, from the military-strategic issue we are moving on to the second issue – the economic one, which is certainly not acceptable in the situation that is developing now,” the general said.
He added that the island, in addition to the border outpost, is reinforced by special forces of the Navy, which are working out relevant tasks.
“We saw this at the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ exercises in early August with the involvement of our aviation and other branches of the military. That is, this is a fundamental issue at the strategic level, because the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, represented by the president, worked on this Snake Island and introduced the new commanders of the air forces, air assault forces, as well as the deputy chief of the General Staff on this island. Thus, emphasizing that these officials and not only, but the leadership of the armed forces, the Ministry of Defense, and law enforcement agencies should pay increased attention to strengthening the capacity to defend the defense of this island,” Romanenko said.
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