Ukraine gives medal to soldier who told Russian officer to ‘go fuck yourself’

A Ukrainian soldier who told an officer on a Russian warship to “go fuck yourself” at the start of the invasion has been released as part of a prisoner exchange and awarded a medal for his services, the Ukrainian ministry of defence said on Tuesday.

Roman Hrybov, a Ukrainian border guard, was serving on Snake Island – a rocky outcrop south of the port of Odesa – when it came under Russian air and sea bombardment on the first day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

When the detachment was asked to lay down their weapons, Hrybov responded by radio with a defiant: “Russian warship, go fuck yourself.”

Initial reports said 13 border guards on the island had died after refusing to surrender, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine saying each guard would be posthumously awarded the title Hero of Ukraine. But just days later, Ukraine’s state border guard said that the soldiers were still alive and had been taken captive by Russia.

Adding to the confusion, Ukraine’s parliament later said that 19 servicemen (not 13 as initially reported) had been released as part of the first major prisoner swap with Russia. On Sunday, Zekenskiy said in an interview with Russian journalists that “some of the soldiers died, some were taken prisoner”.

“All those who were taken prisoner were exchanged. Russia came up with this proposal. We exchanged them without hesitation … Those who died, they are heroes,” Zelenskiy said.

#Ukraine Roman Hrybov, the Ukrainian soldier, who said the now-famous "Russian warship, go fuck yourself" phrase when asked to surrender, returned home. It was initially thought that Hrybov and all the border guards on Snake Island were killed. Hrybov was captured by Russians pic.twitter.com/RVzfzK3ii4 — Hanna Liubakova (@HannaLiubakova) March 29, 2022

Ukraine’s defence ministry said on Tuesday that Hrybov was now home in the city of Cherkasy, and tweeted a video in which Hrybov is seen receiving a medal for his actions from the local authorities.

Recordings of the Snake Island radio exchange involving Hrybov became widely shared on the internet and quickly went viral on various social media channels. The phrase became a rallying cry for Ukraine’s defenders and was commemorated in a postage stamp by the Ukrainian postal service.

The use of the phrase by Ukrainian society has been lauded as one of the examples of how the country sought to undermine the legitimacy of Russia’s invasion through non-military means.

However, the Snake Island incident also has been cited as a case study of how unverified information had the potential of spreading during the war.