A handout picture made available by Oleh Kiper, the head of the Odesa Regional Administration, shows a grain depot at the damaged grain terminal of a port on the Danube River in the Odesa region, southern Ukraine, 16 August 2023 after Russian troops attacked the southern regions of Ukraine with shock drones overnight. The 13 of them were shot down according to a statement from the Ukraine Air Force. Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has pulled out of an UN-Turkey brokered agreement guaranteeing safe passage to Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea and started the mass shelling of Odesa city, granaries, agricultural enterprises, and sea ports. EPA-EFE/Odesa Regional Administration handout HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALESThe ministry said a Russian warplane had taken out the vessel, which it said was carrying a "Ukrainian landing group".
It gave no further details, and Reuters could not independently verify the incident. Ukraine's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Snake Island is a small Ukrainian outpost in the northwest part of the Black Sea, where tensions have escalated since Russia last month pulled out of a deal that had enabled Ukraine to ship grain from its southern ports despite the war.
Since Moscow quit the agreement, Russian drones and missiles have repeatedly struck Ukrainian port facilities and grain silos, while Ukrainian sea drones have damaged a Russian warship and struck a Russian tanker.
The island became synonymous with Ukrainian resistance in the first hours of the war on Feb. 24, 2022, when Russian officers on the Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva radioed Ukrainian guards stationed there and ordered them to surrender or be bombed.
The island's defenders replied with the message "Russian warship, go fuck yourself", which went viral as a national slogan in Ukraine. Russia took the island but abandoned it on June 30 last year after taking heavy losses trying to defend it.
(Writing by Alexander Marrow and Mark TrevelyanEditing by Gareth Jones)
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