- Contingent of soldiers, allegedly 13 in number, were posted on Snake Island
- It sits in off the coast of Ukraine and Romania and was controlled by Ukraine
- Recording relayed the ultimatum sent by Russian sailors on nearby warship
- They warned the guards to surrender ‘otherwise you will be shelled’
- The men defiantly refused and all were subsequently killed
All Ukrainian border guards manning a tiny island in the Black Sea near Romania were killed on Thursday after telling a Russian warship to ‘Go f*** yourselves’ when they were ordered to surrender.
The small contingent of soldiers, allegedly 13 in number, were posted on Snake Island in the Odessa region and were defending the territory after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In a radio message, the soldiers were told by a sailor on board the vessel: ‘This is Russian military warship.
‘I suggest you lay down your weapons and surrender to avoid bloodshed and needless casualties. Otherwise, you will be bombed.’
However, the Ukrainian troops defiantly refused to give up the territory and instead replied with a defiant message of ‘Go f*** yourselves.’
The Russian soldiers on radio are heard muttering the curse back at the defiant Ukrainians.
Soon afterwards, all were killed in an aerial bombardment.
Late on Thursday, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged the deaths of the soldiers.
The island is ruled by Ukraine but sits just miles from the coast of NATO member Romania.
Snake Island is strategically important because it will allow Russia to claim territorial waters stretching 12 nautical miles out to sea.
They cover important shipping channels to the port cities of Odessa, Mykolaiv and Kherson.
After taking the island, Russia would have been able to cut off the shipping channels, isolating Ukraine from international markets and depriving its economy of vital trade revenues as it seeks to defend itself.
