Author: Rainbow Kursk
Recently, the war in Ukraine is in full swing, and the Russian Black Sea Fleet has landed in Odessa Oblast in southern Ukraine. At the same time, the Black Sea Fleet, led by the cruiser Moscow, took control of Snake Island near Romania for the first time. It's a very small island, so why are the Russians interested in it? To this end, Ukraine also came up with the funny story of "13 warriors on Snake Island", saying that 13 soldiers died indomitably and finally all died in battle, which later proved that the 82 Ukrainian soldiers on the island did not shoot a single shot and surrendered.
The main reason for controlling Snake Island is to defend Ukraine's neighbor - Romania!
Photo: Location of Odessa and Romania in Ukraine.
Sure enough, several of the things that happened after the start of the war were related to Romania.
The first was a Su-27 fighter of the Ukrainian Air Force who fled to Romania immediately after the start of the war. At the same time, the Romanian Air Force began to make frequent dispatches. Included in the past few days, the fleeing Su-27 fighter was escorted back to Ukraine by 2 Romanian MiG-21 "Lancer" fighters.
On March 2, a MiG-21 Lancer fighter jet crashed into the sea while on mission in the Black Sea. At the same time, an IAR-330 Cougar helicopter of the Romanian Air Force also crashed while on a mission to find the MiG-21 Lancers, killing all five people on board.
Photo: The MiG-21 Lancer fighter of the Romanian Air Force, modified and upgraded by Israel.
Earlier in the evening of March 2, the Lancers lost contact shortly after taking off from Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base, near Constantța on Romania's Black Sea coast, on a routine patrol mission.
According to the Romanian Ministry of Defense, in addition to the IAR-330 Cougar helicopter, the Romanian Emergency Monitoring Agency (ISU) has also sent personnel to assist in the search for the missing aircraft.
Due to the proximity of the aircraft to the Russian-Ukrainian war zone in Odessa Oblast, there is suspicion that it was shot down by Russian fighter jets or ships of the Black Sea Fleet, but there is currently no indication to support such statements, with more indications that bad weather may have played an important role in the event.
Photo: A Romanian Cougar helicopter crashing during a search and rescue.
In fact, both Russia and Ukraine are very wary of Romania, and the reason is that they fought a fierce battle in Odessa in southern Ukraine during World War II.
200,000 Romanian troops obeyed Hitler's orders and invaded Odessa, and the Soviets stubbornly resisted for 73 days and finally failed. Although the Romanian army won, it paid a high price of 81,000 casualties, and the Soviet casualties were about 41,000, more than 16,000 were killed.
During this period, the horrific 1941 Odessa massacre of 1941 also broke out, which refers to the holocaust against Jews in Odessa and surrounding towns under the control of the Kingdom of Romania in the autumn of 1941 and winter of 1942 during World War II.
In the beginning, the Romanian army, out of retaliation, carried out a massacre of the local unrecovered population, which may have been more than 10,000 people. Later, there were rumors that the Soviet army had airdropped agents in the surrounding cities, and as a result, Romania carried out the persecution of Jews in the four surrounding towns, killing nearly 10,000 people.
Photo: The Odessa tank, a tractor tank used by the Soviets to defend Odessa.
It is precisely because of this relationship, coupled with Romania's subsequent accession to NATO, and a large number of NATO troops, as well as the THAAD anti-missile system, russia's vigilance against Romania has always existed.
This is the main reason why snake island near Romania was taken at the beginning of the war!