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Ukraine's recent attempts to capture Ostrov Zmeiny, or Snake Island, have cost the country numerous of its combat aircraft and military helicopters, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.
Describing Ukraine's attempts to seize the island as "pointless from the military standpoint", Konashenkov said that Ukrainian forces lost three Su-24 attack aircraft and one Su-27 fighter jet, as well as 10 military helicopters.
Four of the helicopters - one Mi-24 attack helicopter and three Mi-8 transport helicopters that were ferrying troops who were supposed to land on the island - were shot down, while another six Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters that were involved in the operation were destroyed on the ground in the vicinity of Artsyz in Odessa oblast, Konashenkov said.
He also added that three Ukrainian Centaur fast assault craft that were carrying landing troops were destroyed at sea, and that Ukraine lost at least 30 military UAVs in the area.
Meanwhile, a source in the Russian Ministry of Defence told Sputnik that the attack on Snake Island was authorised by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky himself who sought to get a "media" result by 9 May, and that the Ukrainian General Staff was against it.
The source also claimed that the idea to attack the island was suggested to Zelensky by "his British advisers", and that this effort was supposed to culminate in a joint statement delivered by the Ukrainian president and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who would've lauded it as a "victory".
Instead, the source remarked, on 9 May Johnson delivered a statement all by himself and made no mention of the disaster that the landing operation on Snake Island turned out to be.