Fleeing Snake Island is just the latest defeat for Russia in Ukraine

A 'gesture of goodwill': That was how the Kremlin tried to play off its retreat from Ukraine's Snake Island on Thursday, after commanders gave up hope of holding the strategic spit of land under withering artillery fire. Russian forces yesterday fled Snake Island - marking just the latest in a series of humiliating battlefield defeats for Putin's army, once considered the world's second-most powerful Hostomel Airport attack: Feb 24-25 In the early hours of February 24, as Putin launched his long-feared war on Ukraine, more than 20 helicopters carrying Russian special forces and paratroopers landed at Hostomel airport - one of the main airstrips near Kyiv. Vladyslava Liubarets, a Bucha resident, walks with her family past destroyed Russian military machinery on a road leading into the Ukrainian capital where Russian forces where beaten back A map of the frontlines in Ukraine as they stood on April 7 shows Russia's retreat from Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy in the north Attempts to storm the city from both west and east had been turned back, and Ukraine had even begun to conduct counter-attacks against Russian forces. RUSSIA'S FALLEN GENERALS General Magomed Tushaev: Chechen special forces leader who had led 'anti-gay purges' killed in an ambush near Hostomel on February 26; Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky: Deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army of the Central Military District killed during a special operation by a sniper on March 4; General Magomed Tushaev was blown up in the early stages of the war by Ukraine after they joined the Russian invasion Major General Vitaly Gerasimov was first deputy commander of Russia's 41st army, taking part in operations in Syria and Crimea. He was killed in a strike near the southern city of Kherson on March 25 Major General Vitaly Gerasimov: First deputy commander of Russia's 41st army who took part in operations in Syria and Crimea, killed in fighting around Kharkiv on March 8; Major General Andrei Kolesnikov: Commander of the 29th Combined Army Army killed on March 11; Major General Oleg Mityaev, died fighting near the city of Mariupol on 16 March; Lt Gen Andrey Mordvichev, killed in the Kherson region on March 19 ; Lt Gen Yakov Rezantsev, commander of Russia's 49th combined army, was killed in a strike near the southern city of Kherson on March 25; Major General Vladimir Frolov was deputy commander of the 8th Guards Army in east Ukraine; Major General Anton Simonov, 55, was seen as the Russian military's leading electronic warfare specialist.