A Timeline of the Recent Snake Island Attacks During the Ukraine War

So, things have been pretty hectic around Snake Island for the last few days with a lot of videos of air strikes on the island and around the island. The idea for this video was suggested by a comment on another video, and I thought it seemed a really interesting idea.

It’s been a hot bed of activity. This all seemed to culminate on the 8th of May when Russia claimed to have defended the island from an attack.

The first event seemed to be this—a photo taken of two Raptor boats from April 27 heading to south western Ukraine near Snake Island. I believe these two ships and likely more Raptors carry out routine patrols around the area.

On April 30, two Bayraktar strikes were carried out, aimed at neutralising the Snake Island SAM defences. The first hit a short-range Strela 10 at 13:39.

Two hours later, at 15:51. A Zu-23-2 AA gun was hit. Also by Bayraktar.

The next major event was on the 2nd of May when two Raptor patrol boats were hit. The first was hit at 04:38 while departing the island. The second Raptor was hit 13 minutes later about 1km to the south of Snake Island, heading towards it at high speed. Both of the Raptors were hit by Bayraktar.

May 6 saw another strike aimed at supressing Snake Island’s SAM defences. This one hit a TOR SAM system. Once again, Bayraktar was the platform used. There was a second video of the incident which was recorded by an observing TB-2.

A satellite photo by AP showed black smoke arriving as a result of the Bayraktar strike. Which I won’t show as it is copyrighted.

On May 7, we saw the famous video of a Serna landing craft being hit by Bayraktar. This Serna was bringing a TOR SAM system to the island. The TORs radar was running. So, this was Russia attempting to bolster the SAM protection on Snake Island after the recent attacks. Behind the Serna, there is another Raptor—clearly not a priority target given the landing craft with a SAM on board.

Later, on the same day—we saw a LARGE air striker by a pair of Su-27 aircraft. They hit two buildings near the lighthouse and a cluster of buildings at the north eastern end of the island. Note, there was no SAM defences launched at the Su-27s—either they have been suprressed completey, or they are ineffective.

A satellite image showed damaged and fires at the island. The Serna can be seen to the north near the dock. A wider satelloite show showed two fast boats—likely Raptors—moving away from Snake Island in the direction of Ukraine.

On May 8 footage was posted online of another strike on Raptor boats. Two were hit and destroyed. It is likely that these were hit on the 7th because the video is in daylight.

So, to recap—Ukraine has launched a number of successful strikes on Snake Island, hitting SAM systems and Raptor patrol boats as well as an airstrike hitting infrastructure. Clearly aimed at suppressign Snake Island’s defences.

Now, here is where things get tricky.
On May 8, this video emerged. This shows an Mi-8 helicopter being destroyed as troops disembarked. The footage was posted by Ukraine. However—Russia, in turn, claims that this was a Ukrainian helicopter. But, the strike appears to be by Bayraktar. So, this appears to be Russian troops landing on the island.

At around the same time, The Russian news agency TASS claimed that Russia had thrawted a massive attack on Snake Island. The Russians claimed to have shot down a Au-24 bombber, a Su-27 fighter, three Mi-8 helicopters loaded with paratroopers and two bayraktar drones. They also claimed to have sunk the assault boat Stanislav—a 47 tone fast assault craft. So far, there isn’t any evidence released by Russia to show an assault on Snake Island was attempted, but, the recent attacks by drones and aircraft did seem to be leading up to something.

In the morning on May 8—satelite images showed burning and a large z painted on the ground.

Finally—on May 9, H I Sutton identified two craft approaching Snake Island. One of which was identified as a Dyugon landing craft which is capable of carryign 5 APCS and 100 soldiers. So, it appears that Russia is further reinforcing Snake Island.

Snake Island is small, so I don’t think it could support 100 soldiers, so its likely the Dyugon wasn’t at full capacity.

So, that is the recent events of Snake Island. Its been a hive of actvitiy and I don’t want to speculate as to whether there’s truth in the Russian claims that an assault was attempted and defeated. But, I figure it is pretty interesting to look at all that has occurred.

Thanks for watching and take care everyone.