Russian troops set up their defensive lines after withdrawing from the city of Kherson on the eastern bank of the Dnieper. The front now runs along the river. Kherson Oblast is thus divided into a Ukrainian-controlled area in the northwest and a Russian-occupied part in the southeast.
Russia is doing everything it can to keep the territory – for President Vladimir Putin (70) nothing less is at stake than access to the annexed Crimean peninsula. The Ukrainian army therefore wants to cross the Dnieper and push back the enemy troops. However, this is a very risky undertaking. Because there is practically only the waterway across the Kinburn Peninsula.
Bridges impassable
The Antonivka Bridge northeast of the city of Kherson was destroyed. A railway bridge a little further to the east was also damaged. The bridge over the Kachowka dam further upstream is not navigable. They were attacked by Ukrainian troops in the summer to disrupt Russian supplies. As they retreated, the Russian army used controlled demolitions to inflict further damage. The Ukrainians could only advance from the northeast. But that would be a big detour – and there is already fierce fighting there anyway.
Earlier this week, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry released a video of allegedly showing soldiers on dinghies crossing the Dnieper River to the Kinburn headland. Russian sources also reported on the attack. However, he was successfully repelled.
Landing operation with a strategic disadvantage
The Ukrainian armed forces are in possession of special technology such as floating tanks and mobile war bridges. But such a landing operation puts you at a strategic disadvantage: to continue the war on the other side of the river, the Ukrainian soldiers must bring heavy artillery. This gives the Russian army time to prepare for the attack.
According to the American think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the sore point of Russian troops is supply. Railway lines would hardly be available to them. There are also few roads in the area. According to the ISW, they therefore form bottlenecks in the supply chain, which Ukraine can easily hit with, for example, Himar missiles.
The front in southern Ukraine is likely to run along the Dnieper for a long time. The German Bundeswehr also does not expect a frontal attack on the Russian positions east of the Dnieper. Brigadier General Christian Freuding, chief of Ukraine’s special staff at the Defense Ministry, says, according to “Spiegel”, “Even all the technical and amphibious capabilities available to NATO would not be enough to build a bridge.” (no)