Archive footage: Ukrainian army fires at Russian forces in Snake Island from Uragan MLRS

On February 1, the Odesa-based Dumska website released the video, citing Ukrainian Armed Forces Major Ivan Izhytskyi.

According to the military, who at the time was the commander of the rocket-artillery battery of the 35th Marine Brigade, on 4 May 2022, an Uragan multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) was loaded onto a barge. As the serviceman recalls, the general idea of the special operation was to check whether it would be possible to hit a small island in this way.

"We can say we have opened the season. Even though we were tied to the spit, it was still not easy to aim - not too much, but we were pretty unstable. The idea was to check whether it makes sense to fire from such a place. Because the island is small, it's hard to hit it. As a result, 11 out of 16 shells hit the island. We understood that it makes sense to fire," Izhytskyi said.

The video below shows the moment when the Uragan MLRS was aimed at the island.

On the night of 29-30 June 2022, the Ukrainian military launched a massive strike on Snake island. At the same time, a number of media outlets reported that the Ukrainian Armed Forces used French Caesar self-propelled artillery systems on barges to liberate the island. In his turn, Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi said that a Bohdana, Ukrainian self-propelled howitzer, played an important role in the liberation of the island.

The Russian military fled the island, but said they did so "as a gesture of goodwill". In total, during the occupation of Snake island, Russia lost $915 million worth of equipment there. On 7 July, Ukrainian defenders raised the flag of Ukraine on the island liberated from the Russian forces.