The importance of Snake Island, speck of land in the Black Sea

Posted By
10Pointer
Categories
World Affairs
Published
25th Jun, 2022

Context

Ukraine has said it has caused “significant losses” to the Russian military in airstrikes on Zmiinyi Island, also known as Snake Island, in the Black Sea.

About the island

Zmiinyi Island, also known as Snake or Serpent Island, is a small piece of rock less than 700 metres from end to end, that has been described as being “X-shaped”.
The island is located in the north-western part of the Black Sea (to the east of the mouth of the Danube and roughly southwest of the port city of Odessa), about 37.5 km from the coast.
The island, which has been known since ancient times and is marked on the map by the tiny village of Bile that is located on it, belongs to Ukraine.
The island’s vegetation is represented by steppe grass. The peculiarities of the climate are the winds, frequent changes in weather and high humidity.

Black Sea

The Black Sea is an inland sea between southeastern Europe and the Anatolian peninsula (Turkey) and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas and various straits.
The Bosporus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the long, island-bound strait of the Dardanelles connects it to the Aegean Sea region of the Mediterranean.
- These waters separate eastern Europe and western Asia.
To its east, the Kerch Strait links the Sea to the smaller Sea of Azov. The most important river entering the Black Sea is the Danube.
Countries bordering the Black Sea are
- Turkey to the south
- Bulgaria and Romania to the west
- Ukraine to the north
- Russia to the northeast
- Georgia to the east
The Crimean Peninsula juts into the Black Sea from the north.