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Serpents Isle, off the Danube, 1856. Snake Island in the Black Sea, near the Danube Delta. On 24 February 2022, two Russian navy warships attacked and captured the island. On 30 June the same year, Ukraine announced that it had driven Russian forces off the island. It was also strategic during the Crimean War: '...a view of Serpents' Isle, off the mouth of the Danube (20 miles) - the first rendezvous of the [allied] fleet to Sebastopol. It seems placed there by Providence to mask the entrance of the great river, whose shores are low and dangerous of approach. It is uninhabited at present. They say it abounds with game, and has a small lake on the highest part'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.