HS analysis|There are no winners in the nine-month-long battle in the small fishing village, writes Helsingin Sanomat’s foreign correspondent John Helin.
The summary is made by artificial intelligence and checked by a human.
Ukrainian armed forces withdrew from the Krunky bridgehead station on the east bank of the Dnieper.
A nine-month battle took place in the village, in which both sides suffered losses.
Ukraine focused its forces on Krunky out of political necessity.
Russia lost at least 271 vehicles in the battle.
Tuesday Ukrainian media told The Ukrainian armed forces withdrew from their bridgehead position on the east bank of the Dnieper in the village of Krynky. Ukrainian soldiers who spoke to the Ukrainian website Slidstvolle described a village of just under a thousand inhabitants as “hell”.
According to Slidstvo, the bodies of 262 dead soldiers had been evacuated from the village. 788 others remained missing. There is no information on the number of wounded, but there are probably many times more.
What really happened in Krynky?
Ukrainian the marines crossed the Dnipro in October. The Russian reserves in the area had been withdrawn in the summer and autumn to repel the Ukrainian summer attack. The banks of Ukraine’s largest river were now defended by undernumbered and lightly equipped Russian troops.
The first information about the crossings came from Russian Telegram sources. According to them, Ukrainian forces are trying to create bridgeheads in the area of the villages of Pištšanivka, Pidstepne, Kozatsi Laher and Krynky.
Ukrainian sources remained silent for a long time. The success of the operation was uncertain, so there was no reason for a big media fanfare.
In November midway through, the Ukrainian armed forces finally reported that they had established several bridgehead positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro.
Spokesperson for the Southern Army Group of Ukraine Natalya Humenyuk told The Russian armed forces that pushed Ukraine to a distance of 3–8 kilometers from the Dnieper. Head of the Presidential Office Andri Jermak stated Ukraine has advanced 70 percent of the way to Crimea.
The arguments sounded good, but were context-bound at best. It is three kilometers across the swampy bed of the Dnipro from one bank to the other, and Jermak calculated his percentage from the village of Vozhnesensk in the Mykolaiv region, where the Russians was repelled in the spring of 2022. From there it is 140 kilometers to Dnipro.
In reality, most of the Ukrainian crossings had been repelled. The bridgehead station was only created in a small fishing village along a tributary of the Dnipro. There, the Ukrainian marines had dug in a strip that was only 500 meters deep at best.
A nine-month war of position began in the village, in which both sides suffered terrible losses. Already in December, Ukrainian soldiers described crossing the river as a suicide mission and the bridgehead as purgatory.
Fight indeed, in many ways, the war in Ukraine is in miniature.
In Krynky, the Ukrainians turned a political necessity into a military virtue. After other landings failed, Ukraine concentrated its forces on Krynky. It seems that the danger of the mission and the losses were secondary, if Ukraine could say that it was outrunning the Russian forces and holding the bridgehead on the opposite bank of the Dnipro.
Ukrainian newspaper The Kyiv Independent in December on the subject spoke Michael Kofman agreed on the political dimension of the operation: Ukraine wanted to show its allies that it still had the initiative on the battlefield.
The Russian forces were tied up in a desperate and mutual battle of attrition. It was also successful when Russia moved more troops to the area.
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In many ways, the battle is the Ukrainian war in miniature.
Russia on the other hand showed his typical disregard for his soldiers or military equipment in Krynky. Ukrainian artillery fire and drones made attacking extremely difficult. Russia lost at least 271 vehicles in the battle. Most of the losses came during the first months of the battle.
The number of dead and wounded Russians is not known, but according to Ukrainian sources it is multiple Given the losses in Ukraine. It is difficult to verify the claim.
The destruction of Sillanpää seemed to have become a political goal in itself for the Russians as well. Instead of besieging the narrow bridgehead, it sought to crush it regardless of losses. Despite endless attacks, it took almost a year to force the Ukrainians to withdraw.
Ukrainians according to sources, Krynky’s fight is now over. Ukraine has lost its largest positions on the east bank of the Dnipro, and there are marines transferred To Kharkiv to fight against the new Russian attack. Russia will transfer the majority of its forces to support attacks on other fronts.
All that remains in Krynky is the ruin of a fishing village filled with craters. After the smoke clears, neither side can say they came out victorious.
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