BRITISH special forces reportedly trained Ukrainian commandos for their massive assault on Snake Island, it has been revealed.
The Special Boat Service, the special forces unit of the Royal Navy, allegedly showed the troops how to use James Bond-style underwater vehicles.
Known as Diver Propulsion Devices or sea scooters, the vehicles are designed to transport frogmen from a combat swimmer unit or naval Special Forces underwater, over long distances.
It has now been revealed that the Dorset-based Special Boat Service travelled to war-torn Ukraine to train the Ukrainian 73rd Naval Special Purpose Centre.
An Army source told Sunday Mirror: “The 73rd became the tip of the sword and provided the fighting force that landed on the island.
“The Ukrainian special forces are as tough as they come but what they have missed out on is our specialist kit and training.
“It has paid dividends with the recapture of Snake Island.”
Snake Island is a small but strategic rocky piece of land, near the Danube Delta, in the Black Sea 22 miles off Ukraine’s south coast.
Snake Island was seized by Russia just days after Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine in 2022.
With the British Navy’s help, however, the Ukrainian frogmen surveyed the coast for landmines then gave the signal for the main group to attack the Russian garrison.
On June 30, Russia announced it would be withdrawing its forces from the island.
The island caught the world’s imagination when Putin’s murderous men captured it as 13 defiant Ukrainian border guards refused to give up the territory, and replied: “Go f**k yourselves!” over loudspeakers.
Ukraine recaptured the island last month after its attack caused “significant losses” to the Russian army.
Ukrainians bombarded the enemy positions with rockets, missiles and drones with commanders saying they launched an “intense strike by various forces and methods of destruction”.
And just a few days later Russia was forced to retreat in a devastating blow to Vladimir Putin’s war- an act that was branded ” a gesture of goodwill”.
The Russian defence ministry was quoted as saying: “As a gesture of goodwill, the Russian military completed their tasks on Zmeiny [Snake] Island and withdrew the garrison stationed there.”
The Ministry of Defence said: “We do not comment on Special Forces.”
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