On the first day of the war in Ukraine, a story emerged of a David and Goliath face-off in the Black Sea, when the Ukrainian soldiers on a small, desolate island responded to a Russian warship’s call to surrender by telling it to go f*** itself. The Ukranians were thought to have been killed and the story became one of the great founding myths of the war - but what really happened to the men on the island and who uttered that fateful phrase?

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.

Guest: Louise Callaghan, foreign correspondent, The Sunday Times.

Host: Luke Jones.

Clips: Telegraph, Reuters.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.