Ukrainian Flag - 2022 Invasion - SNAKE ISLAND 4" X 2.5" Hook and Look Backing
"Russian warship, go f*ck yourself" (Russian: Русский военный корабль, иди нахуй) was the last communication made by Roman Gribov (who also goes by his Ukrainian surname of Hrybov), who was stationed on Snake Island on 24 February 2022 during the Russian attack on the island. The phrase, and derivations of the phrase, became widely adopted, both online and offline, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 12 March 2022, the phrase was commemorated in a postage stamp by Ukrposhta. On his release, Gribov was awarded a medal for his actions. During his captivity, his family applied to trademark the slogan.
On 24 February 2022, two Russian warships began an assault on Snake Island, a Ukrainian island located in the Black Sea. Being a small island with only a single village, populated by fewer than 30 people, only a small contingent of 13 border guards were stationed on the island at the time of the attack. During the onslaught, one of the Russian warships taking part in the siege of the island called on the soldiers to surrender in exchange for safety, at which point, the defenders agreed to curtly decline the offer, and responded with the remark.
The actual translated exchange was:
Russian warship: "Snake Island, I, Russian warship, repeat the offer: put down your arms and surrender, or you will be bombed. Have you understood me? Do you copy?"
Ukrainian 1: "Nu, vsyo. That’s it, then. Or, do we need to f*ck them back off?"
Ukrainian 2: "Might as well."
Ukrainian 1: "Russian warship, go f*ck yourself."
Author and academic Alex Abramovich, writing in the London Review of Books, noted that a more literal translation of "Йди на хуй", transliterated as "Idi na khuy", is "Go to a dick".
The soldier who is believed to have spoken the phrase was Roman Gribov (or Roman Hrybov in Ukrainian).
Subsequently, Snake Island was captured by the Russian naval forces, and the thirteen soldiers defending it were thought to have been killed in the Russian assault. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced he would "posthumously" award the soldiers on Snake Island with the highest Ukrainian honor, the Hero of Ukraine.
On 28 February 2022, the Ukrainian Navy posted on its Facebook page that all the border guards of the island were thought to be alive and detained by the Russian Navy.
On 24 March 2022, some of the Snake Island border guards, including Roman Gribov, were returned to Ukraine in a prisoner exchange. On 29 March 2022, Gribov (who is also referred to by his Ukrainian surname of Hrybov), returned to his native Cherkasy region, and was given a medal for his actions.
Ukraine (Ukrainian: Україна, Romanized: Ukraïna) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second largest country in Europe after Russia, which it borders to the east and north-east. Ukraine also shares borders with Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the south; and has a coastline along the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. It covers about 600,000 km2 (230,000 sq mi), with a population of about 40 million. The nation's capital and largest city is Kyiv.
The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC. During the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture under Kievan Rus', which was ultimately destroyed by the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. Over the next 600 years, the area was contested, divided, and ruled by external powers, including the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austrian Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Tsardom of Russia. The Cossack Hetmanate emerged in Central Ukraine in the 17th century but was partitioned between Russia and Poland, and ultimately completely absorbed by the Russian Empire. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution a Ukrainian national movement re-emerged, and the Ukrainian People's Republic was formed in 1917. This short-lived state was forcibly reconstituted into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a founding member of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1922. From 1932 to 1933 the Holodomor killed millions of Ukrainians. In 1939, Western Ukraine was annexed from Poland by the USSR. Ukraine was the most populous and industrialized republic after the Russian Soviet Republic. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union Ukraine regained its independence in 1991.
Since its independence, Ukraine has been governed as a unitary republic under a semi-presidential system. It declared itself a neutral state, forming a limited military partnership with Russia and other CIS countries while also establishing a partnership with NATO in 1994. In 2013, after President Viktor Yanukovych suspended the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement in favor of closer economic ties with Russia, mass protests and demonstrations known as the Euromaidan erupted, escalating into the Revolution of Dignity that led to the overthrow of Yanukovych and the establishment of a new government. These events formed the background to Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and the War in Donbas the following month. The latter was a protracted conflict with Russian-backed separatists that culminated in a Russian invasion in February 2022. Ukraine has continued seeking closer economic, political, and military ties with the West amid ongoing war with Russia.
Ukraine is among the poorest countries in Europe and suffers from low life expectancy and widespread corruption. However, due to its extensive fertile land, pre-war Ukraine was one of the largest grain exporters in the world. It is a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the GUAM organization, the Association Trio, and the Lublin Triangle.
Orange Revolution
Protesters at Independence Square on the first day of the Orange Revolution
In 2004, Viktor Yanukovych, then prime minister, was declared the winner of the presidential elections, which the Supreme Court of Ukraine later ruled had been largely rigged. The results caused a public outcry in support of the opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, who challenged the outcome. During the tumultuous months of the revolution, candidate Yushchenko suddenly became gravely ill, and was soon found by multiple independent physician groups to have been poisoned by TCDD dioxin. Yushchenko strongly suspected Russian involvement in his poisoning. All of this eventually resulted in the peaceful Orange Revolution, which brought Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko to power, while casting Yanukovych in opposition.
Yanukovych returned to power in 2006 as prime minister in the Alliance of National Unity, until snap elections in September 2007 made Tymoshenko prime minister again. Amid the 2008–09 Ukrainian financial crisis the Ukrainian economy shrank by 15%. Disputes with Russia briefly stopped all gas supplies to Ukraine in 2006 and again in 2009, leading to gas shortages in other countries. Yanukovych was elected President in 2010 with 48% of the vote.
Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity
Pro-EU demonstration in Kyiv, 27 November 2013, during the Euromaidan protests
The Euromaidan (Ukrainian: Євромайдан, literally "Eurosquare") protests started in November 2013 after the president, Viktor Yanukovych, began moving away from an association agreement that had been in the works with the European Union and instead chose to establish closer ties with the Russian Federation. Some Ukrainians took to the streets to show their support for closer ties with Europe.
Meanwhile, in the predominantly Russian-speaking east, a large portion of the population opposed the Euromaidan protests, instead supporting the Yanukovych government. Over time, Euromaidan came to describe a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, the scope of which evolved to include calls for the resignation of President Yanukovych and his government.
Violence escalated after 16 January 2014 when the government accepted new Anti-Protest Laws. Violent anti-government demonstrators occupied buildings in the centre of Kyiv, including the Justice Ministry building, and riots from 18 to 20 February left 98 dead, with approximately fifteen thousand injured and 100 missing. On 21 February, President Yanukovych signed a compromise deal with opposition leaders that promised constitutional changes to restore certain powers to Parliament and called for early elections to be held by December.
However, Members of Parliament voted on 22 February to remove the president and set an election for 25 May to select his replacement, a move described by Russia and US academic John Mearsheimer as a coup. The ousting of Yanukovych prompted Vladimir Putin to begin preparations to annex Crimea on 23 February 2014. Petro Poroshenko, running on a pro-European Union platform, won with over fifty percent of the vote, therefore not requiring a run-off election. Upon his election, Poroshenko announced that his immediate priorities would be to take action on the civil unrest in Eastern Ukraine and mend ties with the Russian Federation. In October 2014 Parliament elections, the party Petro Poroshenko Bloc won 132 of the 423 contested seats.
2014 Russian armed interventions and invasion
For broader coverage of this topic, see Russia–Ukraine relations § Annexation of Crimea and war in eastern Ukraine.
Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, is shown in pink. Pink in the Donbas area represents areas held by the DPR/LPR separatists in September 2014 (cities in red).
Using the Russian naval base at Sevastopol as cover, Putin directed Russian troops and intelligence agents to disarm Ukrainian forces and take control of Crimea. After the troops entered Crimea, a controversial referendum was held on 16 March 2014 and the official result was that 97 percent wished to join with Russia.
On 18 March 2014, Russia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Crimea signed a treaty of accession of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol in the Russian Federation. The UN General Assembly immediately responded by passing resolution 68/262 declaring that the referendum was invalid and supporting the territorial integrity of Ukraine; only Russia voted against the resolution. However, it was not enforceable. Attempts to pass enforceable resolutions in the U.N. Security Council were blocked by Russian vetoes.
Separately, in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, armed men declaring themselves as local militia and supported by pro-Russian protesters seized government buildings, police and special police stations in several cities and held unrecognized status referendums. The insurgency was led by Russian emissaries Igor Girkin and Alexander Borodai as well as militants from Russia, such as Arseny Pavlov. They proclaimed the self styled Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic which have controlled about 1⁄3 of the oblasts since then.
Talks in Geneva between the EU, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States yielded a Joint Diplomatic Statement referred to as the 2014 Geneva Pact in which the parties requested that all unlawful militias lay down their arms and vacate seized government buildings, and also establish a political dialogue that could lead to more autonomy for Ukraine's regions. When Petro Poroshenko won the presidential election held on 25 May 2014, he vowed to continue the military operations by the Ukrainian government forces to end the armed insurgency.
In August 2014, a bilateral commission of leading scholars from the United States and Russia issued the Boisto Agenda outlining a 24-step plan to resolve the crisis in Ukraine. The Boisto Agenda was organized into five imperative categories for addressing the crisis requiring stabilization identified as: (1) Elements of an Enduring, Verifiable Ceasefire; (2) Economic Relations; (3) Social and Cultural Issues; (4) Crimea; and, (5) International Status of Ukraine. In late 2014, Ukraine ratified the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement, which Poroshenko described as Ukraine's "first but most decisive step" towards EU membership. Poroshenko also set 2020 as the target for EU membership application.
In February 2015, after a summit hosted in Minsk, Belarus, Poroshenko negotiated a ceasefire with the separatist troops. The resulting agreements, known as the Minsk Protocol, included conditions such as the withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the front line and decentralization of rebel regions by the end of 2015. They also included conditions such as Ukrainian control of the border with Russia in 2015 and the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Ukrainian territory. The ceasefire began on 15 February 2015. Participants in this ceasefire also agreed to attend regular meetings to ensure that the agreement was respected.
On 1 January 2016, Ukraine joined the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area with the European Union, which aims to modernize and develop Ukraine's economy, governance and rule of law to EU standards and gradually increase integration with the EU Internal market. In 2017 the European Union approved visa-free travel for Ukrainian citizens: entitling Ukrainians to travel to the Schengen area for tourism, family visits and business reasons, with the only document required being a valid biometric passport.
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
Main articles: Prelude to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
In spring 2021, Russia began building up troop strengths along its border with Ukraine. On 22 February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered military forces to enter the breakaway Ukrainian republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, calling the act a "peacekeeping mission". Putin also officially recognized Donetsk and Luhansk as sovereign states, fully independent from the Ukrainian government.
In the early hours of 24 February 2022, Putin announced a "special military operation" to "demilitarize and de-Nazify" Ukraine, and launched a large-scale invasion of the country. Later in the day, the Ukrainian government announced that Russia had taken control of Chernobyl. On 28 February 2022, Ukraine asked for immediate admission to the European Union in response to the invasion.
One month after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it appeared that early Russian predictions for a quick victory in Ukraine were based on faulty Russian intelligence. Russia had not yet achieved two primary initial objectives, the capture of Ukraine's two largest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv, with Ukrainian counter-offensives pushing back Russian front lines around Kyiv. Several newspapers reported a woefully under-trained Russian army and of a lack of adequate Russian equipment, food, and weaponry.
According to one Russian news station over 9,861 Russian troops and at least 5 Russian generals have been killed to date and another 30,000 have been injured, captured, or are missing-in-action. The mounting bad news for the Russian military is believed to have begun to have a negative impact on the morale of the Russian troops. Some military analysts are now beginning to refer to the progress of the war as devolving into a "stalemate situation."