Russian ordinance is seen on the ground of a concert hall damaged by strikes, in Yahidne village, northern Chernihiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday. A few months after Russian troops retreated from Yahidne, the village has gradually returned to life. People are repairing their homes, and a strong wind occasionally picks up the bitter smell of ashes. (AP photo)

SLOVIANSK, Ukraine — Russia forces withdrew from a strategic Black Sea island Thursday after relentless Ukrainian attacks but kept up their push to encircle the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in the eastern province of Luhansk.

Russia portrayed the pullout from Snake Island off the port city of Odesa as a “goodwill gesture.” Ukraine’s military said the Russians fled the island in two speedboats following a barrage of Ukrainian artillery and missile strikes.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the withdrawal was intended to demonstrate that Russia isn’t hampering U.N. efforts to establish a humanitarian corridor for exporting agricultural products from Ukraine.

Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of blockading Ukrainian ports to prevent exports of grain, contributing to the global food crisis. Russia has denied the accusations and said that Ukraine needs to remove mines from the Black Sea to allow safe navigation.

Turkey has sought to broker a deal on unblocking grain exports. But the talks have dragged on, with Kyiv expressing fear that Russia will exploit the removal of the mines to attack Odesa.

Snake Island sits along a busy shipping lane. Russia took control of it in the opening days of the war in the apparent hope of using it as a staging ground for an assault on Odesa.

The island early on took on legendary significance for Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion, when Ukrainian troops there reportedly received a demand from a Russian warship to surrender or be bombed. The answer supposedly came back, “Go (expletive) yourself.”

Ukraine has celebrated the story with patriotic fervor, issuing a postage stamp in commemoration.

The island’s Ukrainian defenders were captured by the Russians but later freed as part of a prisoner exchange. After the island was taken, the Ukrainian military heavily bombarded the small Russian garrison there and its air defenses.

At a NATO summit in Madrid, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson billed the Russian pullout as a sign that Ukraine will prevail in the war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “In the end it will prove impossible for Putin to hold down a country that will not accept” occupation, Johnson said.

Meanwhile, Moscow kept up its push to take control of the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. It is focused on the city of Lysychansk, the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in Luhansk province.