Zelensky visits the island where soldiers told the Russian warship to fuck off

Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked the 500th day of the war today by saluting the country's soldiers in a video.

The President of Ukraine paid a surprise visit to Snake Island in the Black Sea, which has become a symbol of his nation's resilience in the face of invasion.

Russia took control of the island on February 24, 2022 – the day Moscow launched its war – in the apparent hope of using it as staging ground for an assault on Odessa, the largest port of Ukraine and the headquarters of its navy.< /p>

Defending troops there would have received a request from a warship to surrender or be bombarded. The response, in a radio exchange that later went viral, came back: "Fuck you."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered his nightly address to the nation from Snake Island (

Picture:

Zuma Press/PA Pictures)

The words were later immortalized as a national slogan, appearing on T-shirts and billboards. The Ukrainian defenders of the island were captured but later freed in a prisoner exchange.

After taking the island, the Ukrainian army heavily shelled the small Russian garrison, forcing the Russians to withdraw on June 30, 2022.

The Russian retreat reduced the threat of a Russian seaborne attack on Odessa and helped pave the way for an agreement to resume Ukrainian grain exports.

Today, Zelenskyy honored the Ukrainian soldiers who fought for the island and all other defenders of the country, saying that regaining control of it "is great proof that Ukraine will regain every bit of it. of its territory".

"I want to thank - from here, from this place of victory - each of our soldiers for these 500 days," Zelenskyy said. "Thank you to everyone who fights for Ukraine!"

He announced that five commanders from the defense of the Azovstal steel plant, a grueling siege of several months at the start of the war, were returning with him on the plane.