Ukrainian media reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) suffered a defeat near the village of Krynky, publishing battle details and soldiers’ evidence.
The operation to take positions and expand the bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnipro River by Ukrainian forces lasted from mid-October 2023 to July 2024. The battles took place mainly for Krynky, the only village on the left bank of the river in the Kherson region, where the AFU managed to gain a foothold.
The first footage shows Ukrainian troops landing under Russian fire.
Dmytro Lykhoviy, spokesman for the Tavria operational-strategic group, told Ukrainian media on Wednesday that “the Defence Forces continue conducting a defence operation on the left bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson region, in particular, and in the Krynky area.”
Slidstvo.info also confirmed footage from 2 July showing the Russian military dropping anti-tank mines on the positions of the defence forces in the south of Krynky.
During the defence of the village, hundreds of Ukrainian families received reports that their sons, husbands, parents, and brothers went missing, Ukrainian media reported. Another video displays casualties among Ukrainian marines.
Vasyl, a 24-year-old contract Marine from the 505th Battalion, 37th Brigade, spent 72 days at Krynky, from 2 December 2023 to 14 February 2024. According to the source, he stayed so long as the boat that came to retrieve him was loaded with wounded and Vasyl kept waiting for the next one.
In the Donetsk area, it was such that by one o’clock an evac [evacuation vehicle] arrived. And here we enter Krynky, one could say that we go straight into a circle. There are Russians on the right, Russians on the left, Russians in front, and water behind. There is nowhere to retreat, in winter it would have been unrealistic to do it. This winter – it was a very difficult moment.
“A lot of boats didn’t reach us. There were times when boys were lying with severed limbs for 10 days, and the boats could not come to us. We had a very experienced medic, he tried to stabilise everyone. Only two did not survive.”
Maybe I won’t come back
According to Ukrainian media, mothers of soldiers wrote under every video about Krynky that they were looking for their missing sons. One of them is the mother of 24-year-old Oleh Kushelyuk.
He was an electrician – machinist in a unit in Volyn. (…) At first Oleh was in a unit in the Mykolaiv region. And then he calls me and says: ‘Mum, I don’t want to say anything, but maybe I won’t come back.’ He was the one who called me on 2 April this year. And since then there has been no contact with him. And on 19 May I received a notice that my child is missing, and then the act, and it says that he is missing. (…) Two other guys who were travelling there with him – they don’t contact me anymore either.
Another mother, Liubov, also spoke about her missing 23-year-old son Yevhen near Krynky.
“His commanders tell me: accept it, put a candle, he died. Am I some kind of bitch and not a mother to put a candle when I don’t know if my child is alive? (…) And on 17 June I received an official letter that he was missing. I wish they would let me take the bodies from there… Krynky is a trap.”
This footage features a Ukrainian drone flying over the Krynky area in winter-spring.
Super-heavy task
According to Ukrainian media, the Marines “showed the greatest heroism and resilience in retaining this piece of land on the left bank of the Dnipro River,” but paid a heavy price for it. The Marines have repeatedly stated that the Russians are not taking prisoners at Krynky.
The following video shows a Ukrainian boat abandoned near the left bank of the Dnipro River.
For now, the war against Russian forces is being fought on islands near Krynky. Most of the sailors, boatmen, and medics from various Marine brigades who have worked near the village said that the defence of Krynky has been a super-heavy task with limited resources from the start.
It was especially hard to go in there in October for the winter.
Some participants in the landing at Krynky believe that at first it was possible to defend the village and try to expand the bridgehead. However, when the village was destroyed, sometime in late winter, the task of holding those positions became a “one-way road” for many Ukrainians.
The operator of a Ukrainian drone showed under what kind of shelling the AFU marines had to cross to the left bank of the Dnipro River.
“I’ll just show you once. Under such a barrage of enemy fire, boats of marines and territorial defence units move along the Dnipro River during forcing and logistics day and night.”
Police told Ukrainian media that 788 men went missing in the village of Krynky, Kherson region, on the left bank of the Dnipro River, between October 2023 and the end of June 2024. Meanwhile, the number of dead military personnel who have been removed and buried from there totals 262 soldiers.
However, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine lost 31,000 soldiers. It turns out that in the suicidal attacks across the river in winter, the country lost about 2.5 per cent of AFU soldiers in the battle for the village, which will most likely have to be abandoned eventually. However, experts believe that the losses have been greatly underestimated.
In January, the Ukrainian military told of fighting while crossing the Dnipro River in a desperate attempt to hold the bridgehead at Krynky. At the time, the Dnipro was given the terrifying name “The River of Death.”
