Ukrainian special forces and marines have managed to overcome what the Prussian military genius Carl von Clausewitz wrote in 1832 was nature’s best ally for a defending army: advancing against an enemy entrenched on the opposite bank of a great river. Despite all the adversities, several thousand of the best Ukrainian soldiers have managed to establish themselves along 20 kilometers of the eastern bank of the Dnieper River, in the Russian-held part of Kherson province, on the southern front of the war.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces have opened, where it seemed most difficult to achieve, a new flank against the invader. It is their greatest success on the war front in a year, since the liberation of the western half of Kherson province, which is on the right bank of the Dnieper. kyiv’s other significant success since the summer has been air and marine drone strikes against the Russian fleet in Crimea, driving back enemy warships in the Black Sea. But on land, Ukraine has not been full of good news. The counteroffensive that began in the summer in the Zaporizhia sector did not obtain results and Russia is attacking in the provinces of Donetsk and Kharkiv, being superior in artillery, drones and in number of troops. But this superiority has been at the cost of leaving the southern flank, that of Kherson, more vulnerable, betting on the orographic difficulty of overcoming the Dnieper and its kilometers of wetlands.
In October, the Ukrainian Armed Forces began a campaign of constant assault with speedboats on the other side of the Dnieper with the utmost secrecy. Although assaults also occurred in summer, the large-scale operation was not carried out earlier because the destruction of the Nova Kajovka dam last June flooded kilometers of fields. The water receded and as the weeks passed, the flooded lands dried out. The result is that they have managed to establish what in military theory is known as two “bridgeheads”: two points secured by troops to which boats are arriving daily, for the relief of soldiers and even for the transport of armored vehicles. light infantry, as reported to EL PAÍS by Vitali, commander of a special forces company, who asks not to give his last name.
The two bridgeheads are about 20 kilometers apart; one is located near the city of Kherson, in the vicinity of the Antonivka bridge, fighting in the municipality of Oleshki; the other, further north, in the town of Krinki. Further south in the city of Kherson, the same strategy is being reproduced, according to the weekly military analysis of Espressoone of the reference media in Ukraine, on November 15: landings are intensifying in Hola Pristan, a town seven kilometers from the provincial capital.
Roman Svitan, retired colonel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and one of the most cited analysts of the war, stated on November 15 in the digital Oboz that this third spearhead can be decisive in freeing the final stretch of the Dnieper, up to Cape Kinburn, because it can force Russian troops to retreat towards the municipality of Skadovsk, at the gates of Crimea, to avoid being isolated. This situation would also allow Ukraine to regain control of the Dnieper Gulf, a safe river outlet to the Black Sea from Kherson and Mykolaiv.
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The Ukrainian General Staff reports that officially the immediate objective is to drive the invader back 20 kilometers away from the river, to ensure a recovery of civil and economic life in the municipalities on the western bank. This distance is the minimum to reduce the action capacity of the most common artillery of Soviet origin on the Russian side. So much Espresso such as the Institute for the Study of War, an American center for analyzing the conflict, emphasize that one of the reasons for the operations in the Dnieper is to force a transfer of Russian troops on the Donetsk, Kharkov and Zaporizhia fronts to the south. Sources from the High Command for the South assume to this newspaper that a land advance from the Dnieper towards Crimea, about 100 kilometers away, is currently impossible, due to inferiority in human resources and artillery.
If the two armies agree on something, it is restricting media access to the Dnieper. The Ukrainian High Command for the southern front denies this access and the possibility of interviewing soldiers in the rear. In the summer counteroffensive, on the Zaporizhia front, secrecy was also obsessive. Government representatives publicly complained that the media and analysts were increasingly turning to Russian military sources to understand what was happening on the battlefield. The same thing is happening in Kherson. This November the BBC interviewed Russian soldiers who have fought in Krinki. They claimed that members of the Ukrainian special forces had assaulted their positions dressed in Russian uniforms, dressed as firefighters or emergency services personnel, something that contravenes the Geneva Convention.
These Russian soldiers estimated that 500 Ukrainian soldiers had already landed in Krinki, although the number in the entire area is much higher, as Western military sources underlined on November 16 to The Guardian. According to the British newspaper, the Ukrainian Armed Forces had managed to establish three marine brigades on the eastern side of Kherson, which would be equivalent to 6,000 soldiers. Taking into account that this troop fights in rotations of several days, this indicates that there may be at least 3,000 soldiers operating on the left bank.
The Russian soldiers confirmed to the BBC something that Western and Russian analysts have pointed out: first it is the special forces that take enemy positions and then the Marine Corps, the Ukrainian naval infantry, comes into action. Clashes between both armies have been reported four kilometers from the shore, but Vitali, the commander of the special forces, indicates that his men infiltrate much further into the enemy ranks. The objective is to locate the Russian artillery and drone pilots so that the Ukrainian howitzers and unmanned devices can nullify them. This is key, he indicates, to ensure the transportation on barges of armored infantry such as the American Bradley, maneuvers that can last 40 minutes.
At the moment the infantry has not crossed with mechanized brigades, “but very soon it will be possible,” says Vitali. Retired Colonel Svitan was not so optimistic in his interview with Oboz and explained that first it is necessary to add assault companies that manage to push the Russians back 15 kilometers: it will be then that pontoons can be erected and anti-aircraft defense batteries established on the western shore. For the moment, Svitan commented, the Ukrainians have to act in small tactical groups in constant movement, especially now that the Russian command has assigned a new regiment of paratroopers to regain control in Krinki, as reported on Thursday by the Center for Strategies. of Defense, a Ukrainian military studies institute. “The land [humedales o bancos de arena] It is not suitable for digging trenches, so the best defense is to be on the move and disperse,” Svitan concluded.
From the Ukrainian rear in Kherson, the fire of howitzers is constant, also of medium-range precision rockets such as the American Himars, to disrupt the enemy’s logistical lines. The British Ministry of Defense confirmed this Friday that a Ukrainian attack destroyed a Russian convoy on the Kherson front on November 10, 23 kilometers from the river, killing more than 70 soldiers. British intelligence services also claim that on November 19, in Donetsk, a concentration of Russian troops was bombed, resulting in “dozens of casualties.”
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