in and of itself because he hasn t left ukraine since the start of the invasion. but he ll be here for that announcement of patriots and more. all right, oren liebermann at the pentagon. phil mattingly at the white house with the breaking news. thanks to both of you. quote, russian warship, go f yourself. [ bleep ]. nearly a year after ukrainian guard on snake island uttered that now defiant phrase, the island remains firmly in ukrainian hands. in an exclusive, will ripley and his crew are the first journalists to make the perilous trip to that island, littered with land mines and russian wreckage. reporter: as the saying goes, whoever controls snake island controls the black sea. the safest way to get there, the ukrainian military s inflatable speed boat, with seating for six. it s small enough to stay out of sight. we are really getting tossed around out here, but we need to take a small boat, because we
not a snake in sight. on february 24th, the first day of russia s full-scale invasion, russia s black sea flagship, the moskva aimed its arsenal. demanding dozens of ukrainian defenders surrender or die. [ speaking non-english ] reporter: what happened next is how legends are made. five words, seen at the time as a final act of defiance. everyone on snake island presumed dead. russian bombs raining down. the island s radio went silent. those five words, telling the russian warship where to go instantly iconic, inspiring t-shirts, postage stamps, pop songs. ukraine later learned snake
security assistance package, a package that will include something zelenskyy has long asked for and over the course of the last several weeks the white house and the biden administration has moved closer to agreeing to deliver. that s the patriot missile systems that white house officials and the department of defense have been weighing over the course of the last several weeks, and have been moving towards signing off on. now this planning is still tentative, and no final decision has been made yet. but this is something that has been very closely held and something that a very tight circle of administration officials have been working on over the course of the last several days. we do know that the administration has been moving toward saying yes to the idea of sending patriot missiles and other advanced weaponry as well, something that underscores the realities that are happening on the ground right now. but i think the significance of the moment is also something worth pointing out
it remained under ukraine control. it was under siege since february. that is important. it prevents russia from advancing on the ground of the agent and heavily fortified city of odessa. that is right here on the black sea. odessa is a city that putin has been publicly pining for. he described the ukrainian black sea territory. russia can t advance on odessa by sea. ukraine isn t putting heavy losses on russian naval assets. that includes, you might remember, the sinking of russia s black sea flagship, the moskva. russia does not plan on stopping at odessa. this is important to know. that is odessa, disses the ukrainian border. they continue to this little part in red over here. this is a tiny swath of russian occupied land. it is technically part of a different country, moldova. as you can see, taking control
for the ukrainian forces, but without that total western support. and that, again, is something. there are many things the biden administration may have not got right, particularly in afghanistan. but in terms of rebuilding the coalition and keeping that coalition united. the fact that the germans took the lead on stopping nord stream 2 i don t think any of us could have predicted that three to four months ago. as you just said, you re the chair of the senate intel, intelligence committee. you know a lot of what is going on. how surprised have you been by the depth, the extraordinary depth of intelligence cooperation between the united states and the ukrainians? we know, at least according to sources who talked to the new york times, that a dozen russian generals have been targeted by the ukrainians thanks to us intelligence. we believe that the moskva, the black sea flagship russian vessel, was sunk thanks to us intelligence cooperation with the ukrainians. this is extraordinary. bu