The Russian Army has strengthened its position on Snake Island in the Black Sea, occupied at the start of the war, where it installed additional defense systems. This suggests the Russians are unwilling to give up this strategic point, despite the threats posed by the new Caesar and HIMARS artillery and missile systems received by the Ukrainian forces. Western military experts believe the latest open-source satellite footage of the small island off the Ukrainian and Romanian coast reveals anti-air systems installed by the Russians both on land as well as on nearby ships. The West has provided Ukraine with more mobile artillery systems, which in theory should allow them to hit Snake Island. Experts say the island has both a military and an economic strategic value, since whoever controls the island controls the traffic of civilian watercraft in the Black Sea. A former territory of Romania, annexed by the USSR and taken over by Ukraine in 1991, Snake Island is located in an area rich in oil and natural gas.
