[Korrespondent] The expansion of the bridgehead in the Krynki area became known in early November 2023; this week, the media reported that the Ukrainian military was forced to leave Krynki.
Ukrainian troops have left the bridgehead in Krynki on the left bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region, domestic media reported the day before. Official sources have not confirmed this information. DeepState noted that they are waiting for an official report on the situation in that area.
THE MOST DIFFICULT SECTION OF THE FRONT
Krynki was considered the most difficult section of the front. Marines said that in Krynki "you can live, but you can't leave." During the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2023, the Ukrainian military began an operation to create a bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnieper.
The evacuation of the wounded from Krynki could take weeks - during the operation the enemy studied and targeted all the routes along which the marines were floating.
FIGHTING FOR THE RUINS
Military expert Ivan Stupak says that in Krynki the Ukrainian Armed Forces were literally holding on to the ruins. “There really weren’t any structures there anymore. Krynki is the conventional name of the location that was there,” he noted. According to him, this settlement was destroyed by the Russians using heavy equipment and various types of weapons.
"The Russians regularly destroyed and damaged our boats that were bringing our guys in and when there was an evacuation - there were losses at that stage, and also when they were transporting ammunition. That is, they regularly hunted for these boats. It happened that we lost 5-6 boats a day. And we understand that they were not empty. The Russians destroyed them," Stupak said.
GRAY AREA
According to Stupak, today the fight is for the islands in the Dnieper. "The enemy regularly suffers losses. There are no physical soldiers of ours. Our losses are less. We do not control this territory, but the Russians have nothing to cling to there, so this is a kind of gray zone and attempts to gain a foothold on individual islands on the Dnieper River," Stupak emphasized.
In order to save the lives of the fighters, the Defense Forces must retreat from destroyed positions, the General Staff representative emphasized in a comment to Liga.net about Krynki.
"War is not a place for emotions. War is a matter of numbers. And if it were not for Krynki, we would now be discussing not the Pokrovskoe and Toretskoe directions, but the offensive on the Slavyano-Kramatorsk agglomeration. If it were not for Krynki, we would now be discussing not Liptsy and Vovchansk, but Velykyi Burluk. If it were not for Krynki, we would be discussing today not the enemy's entry into Urozhaynoye, but into Velyka Novoselovka," says military and political observer Alexander Kovalenko.
According to him, Krynki had an impact on the entire combat zone, and every life left there saved a dozen lives in other areas.
"Krynki has been turned into a lifeless field in six months and is now not controlled by enemies. Krynki is a gray zone. But Russian occupiers are trying to enter there, and therefore, they keep their resource around Krynki. And the Ukrainian defense forces continue to methodically neutralize it. Does the scheme continue to work? Yes," Kovalenko noted.