Efforts of Ukraine to regain the Island began in April of 2022 with the sinking of the flagship of the russian black sea fleet, the “moskva” warship. Soon after, Ukrainian intelligence officers of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, in cooperation with other units of the Defence Forces of Ukraine, conducted a highly complex operation to liberate Zmiinyi and hoisted the Ukrainian flag on the Island...

On June 30, moscow announced that it was withdrawing its troops, calling it a ‘gesture of goodwill’.

“Since mid-June 2022, we started working systematically and we forced the russians to leave the island in two weeks,” the officer, who was responsible for the operation, known by his call sign “Shakespeare”, told in an interview for “The Wall Street Journal”.

The journalists of the online-publication had a rare opportunity to visit Zmiinyi Island in the Black Sea and talked to the warriors of the elite Special Forces unit of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine ‘Tymur’, who took part in its recapture in the summer of 2022.

Ukrainian intelligence officers have revealed new details of one of the most famous pages of Ukrainian resistance to the russian invasion.