Ukrainian units appear to be intensifying offensive activity across the Dnieper River—called the Dnipro in Ukrainian—as Kyiv’s troops look to cement and build out their foothold on the left, or eastern, bank of the waterway that has served as a formidable front line for almost one year.
Reports emerged this week among pro-war Russian military bloggers of fresh Ukrainian assaults on the left bank, with reconnaissance and sabotage groups allegedly advancing more than one mile inland and initially overwhelming Russian defenses in the area.
Roman Chop/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
The Institute for the Study of War’s Thursday-evening update said there was continued discussion among Russian sources of “larger-than-usual Ukrainian ground operations on the east (left) bank of Kherson Oblast on October 19.”
Ukrainian forces, the U.S.-based independent think tank added, “likely maintain a limited presence in some east bank areas near the Dnipro River shoreline and the Antonivsky railway bridge.” Newsweek is unable to independently verify the reports and has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry by email to request comment.
The initial reports of intensified Ukrainian operations on the left bank came from the Rybar Telegram channel, one of the largest pro-war milblogger accounts run by Mikhail Zvinchuk, who once served in the Spetsnaz GRU and later in the Defense Ministry’s press service.
On Thursday, Zvinchuk said that “enemy saboteurs landed and attacked” Krynky, a village on the left bank of the Dnieper around 10 miles southwest of Nova Kakhovka. “They were able to gain a foothold in the village and advance all the way to the road, but after artillery and air strikes they were driven out to the northern outskirts of the village,” Zvinchuk wrote.
Ukrainian troops, he added, were pushed back but retained control of houses on the outskirts of the village, just over a mile inland of the river. Kyiv’s forces appeared to be waiting for reinforcements to arrive, the ISW wrote.
The think tank cited a second milblogger who said Ukrainian forces “used more manpower in the attacks towards on Krynky than in previous attacks.”
Ukrainian units are also reported to be on the attack to the south, in the area around the village of Pishchanivka, some 10 miles northeast of Kherson on the left bank of the river. There, the head of the Kherson occupation administration Vladimir Saldo said that Ukrainian troops were confined to the area under the Antonivsky railway bridge and subject to heavy artillery and aerial bombardment.
The Ukrainian military, the ISW noted, “notably tacitly acknowledged Ukrainian operations on the east bank and reported on October 19 that Russian airstrikes hit Pishchanivka, implying Ukrainian forces were operating in the town.”
Ukrainian forces have been launching periodic, small-scale raids across the Dnieper since retaking the west bank of the river last fall. But the wide, fast-flowing waterway has proved a formidable obstacle to further advances, as have months of defensive preparations for Russian troops on the opposing bank.
The situation was further complicated by the destruction in June of the Nova Kakhovka dam, with the subsequent downstream deluge swelling the river and causing severe flooding in the Kherson region.
Still, Kyiv has maintained a steady operational tempo in recent months, keeping Russian forces pinned in the southern Kherson region, while Ukraine pushes its grinding counteroffensive further west in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk oblasts.
The ISW said that Ukraine is growing its left bank foothold. “While Russian sources continue to offer slightly diverging claims about the scale of the Ukrainian attacks on the east bank, ISW continues to assess that current Ukrainian actions appear to be larger than previously observed tactical raids, and available geolocated footage indicates that Ukrainian forces maintain a presence along the shoreline and near the Antonivsky railway bridge despite Russian counterattacks.”
