March 10, 2026, 2:57 p.m.
(PHOTO: generated by AI)
Zmiinyi Island in Odesa region was targeted by Russian long-range bombers on the afternoon of March 9.
This was reported by the South Air Command.
In particular, Tu-22 bombers attacked the south of Ukraine, firing three X-22 cruise missiles near Zmiinyi Island.
The Kh-22 "Storm" is a family of Soviet supersonic long-range air-launched anti-ship missiles. The missile is launched from supersonic Tu-22 or Tu-22M strategic bombers (the missile and the aircraft form the K-22 air-to-air missile system), but was also developed for other carriers, such as Tu-16 and Tu-95. The missile is designed to destroy aircraft carriers and aircraft carrier strike groups with a nuclear (special) or high explosive (conventional) warhead. During the Russian-Ukrainian war (since 2022), it became the weapon of numerous war crimes committed by Russian forces during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including a missile attack on the Riviera shopping center, a shopping center in Kremenchuk, a residential building in Serhiivka, in the city of Dnipro, etc.
As of 9:30 a.m. on March 10, the air defense of southern Ukraine had neutralized 23 Shahed and Gerbera unmanned aerial vehicles, 45 attack drones of other types, and four reconnaissance drones.
<picture>
PHOTO: South Air Command.
In August 2023, the military returned the border marker on Zmiinyi Island to replace the one destroyed by the Russian military at the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
In early July 2023, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Zmiinyi Island.
On July 20, 2022, the Ukrainian military began demining the territory of Zmiinyi Island. According to the Main Intelligence Directorate, samples of enemy weapons and equipment were found and seized. The military also found a cat on the island that had been there for several months and survived the enemy occupation and shelling.
On July 7 of the same year, the Ukrainian military planted the national flag on the liberated Zmiinyi Island. On June 30, the Russians fled Zmiinyi after a week-long operation by the Ukrainian military.
Prior to that, Ukraine's heterogeneous defense forces had fired more than 10 times on Zmiinyi Island on the night of June 27, including one hit on a Pantsyr-S1 anti-aircraft missile system.
Кирило Бойко