Ukraine has regained control over Zmiyiny Island in the Black Sea, located just a few kilometers from Odessa in the Danube Delta.. The Russian army captured this small island the very next day after the start of the invasion - February 25.

Since that time, the Ukrainian army has repeatedly attacked the invaders on the island, trying to push them out of there.. Why Serpentine is so important?

“Whoever controls the island can control the movement of civilian ships in the south of Ukraine,” Kirill Budanov, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, told Die Welt, adding that Zmeiyne can also “control the airspace of southern Ukraine to a certain extent.”.

Will the return of the island to Ukraine be a turning point in the war unleashed by Russia? Colonel of the Austrian Armed Forces Markus Reisner noted that the release of Zmeiny was an " Die Welt explains that Reisner is chair of military planning at the Theresian Military Academy. He is considered one of the best-informed military analysts in Europe about the war Russia is waging against Ukraine..

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Moscow called the retreat from the island a " Like, this was done for the sake of the UN efforts aimed at creating a humanitarian corridor for food exports from Ukraine.. Die Welt, however, notes that bitter defeat " Why the Ukrainian military were able to win on the island right now?

“We know that the United States has transferred four HIMARS. And these systems, as well as those transferred by Germany, have been in use for several days.. It is possible that these systems were used to strike the island,"

He also admitted that the military of Ukraine could use these Western weapons to strike at weapons depots near Kharkov.. This means that the supply of heavy weapons, including German ones, is finally benefiting Ukraine. However, the expert notes that the emergence of powerful weapons does not guarantee a turning point in the war as a whole.. Ukraine is still under powerful Russian pressure in Donbas. And, according to Reisner, by the end of the summer, control over the region may be lost.. Moscow also now holds 70-80% of the south of Ukraine in occupation. However, the Russian army failed to capture Odessa - a key piece in the puzzle. And after the loss of Snake Island, it will be even more difficult to occupy the city.

“Thanks to anti-ship missiles like Harpoon with a range of up to 300 kilometers, it is possible to keep a dozen Russian ships in the Black Sea away from the coast and push them back to Crimea,” Reisner said..

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Theoretically, this could help establish a corridor for transport ships to restore grain exports.. This corridor could run from Odessa to Snake Island and further to the Danube Estuary or the Romanian port of Constanta. However, although the chances of unblocking the Ukrainian port have now increased, not everything is so simple..

“Russia may start attacking transport ships with the help of its submarines. Of course, this is an assumption, but it is also worth thinking about,” the Austrian expert explained..

In addition, Moscow may start directly attacking the infrastructure for loading ships in Odessa, which it has already done in the port of Nikolaev.. In general, the liberation of the Serpent's Island is an important success for Ukraine, which, first of all, should increase the morale of the Ukrainian army.. The island has great symbolic power in this war because Russia captured it so quickly and so ruthlessly.. However, regaining control of Serpentine is only part of a larger goal for Ukraine's defenders, which is to prevent their country from being cut off from access to the sea..