2024-05-03 13:09:14
The Ukrainian army seized the island of Nestryha on the Dnieper, about sixteen kilometers from the city of Kherson. The river is now the front line in these places. Ukrainians control the west bank and Russian occupiers the east.
The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyj, spoke for the first time about the landing on the island on Sunday. Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said the Russians were trying to retake the island, but the Ukrainians were repelling their attacks.
“They retreated without success and with losses. Nestryha lies in front of the mouth of the Dnieper into the sea, and its control is important in that we prevent the movement of Russian airborne and sabotage units,” Pletenchuk described.
He added for the Ukrainian television TSN that the Russian army used the island for mortar attacks on Ukrainian boats, its diversionary groups carried out a survey of the western bank of the river and then directed artillery fire at Ukrainian targets.
The surprise strike by the Ukrainians is the first major advance of the army on the southern section of the front after several months. At the beginning of the year, Ukrainian forces were trapped on the east bank near the village of Krynky, but have not yet been able to move heavy equipment across the river there.
The head of the administration of the Kherson region, Alexander Tolokonnikov, told Radio Svoboda that the Ukrainians are gradually creating a bridgehead for the offensive on the occupied eastern bank.
“We have been holding Krynky for several months now, and every other territory will help us in the attack on the eastern bank – on the villages of Nova Zburjevka and Hola Prystaň,” said Tolokonnikov. Before the war, Hola Prystaň was a cottage settlement where people from Kherson went mainly for the summer and weekends. The occupiers made embrasures, barracks and ammunition stores in the huts. “We know that they simply took over the houses and, as usual, stole everything they could,” Tolokonnikov described.
Moscow has not confirmed the loss of Nestryha Island. Russian war reporter and propagandist Alexander Koc from the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda claims, based on interviews with Russian soldiers, that fighting continues on the island and that it is not true that the Russians have completely abandoned it. “The Ukrainians landed on the island and their artillery stopped firing cluster munitions so as not to hit their own people,” said Koc.
There are hundreds of islands in the Dnieper delta, Nestryha is one of the largest. Until the beginning of the war, it was part of the national nature park, no one lived there permanently.
This is not the first island that has been fiercely fought over. Last year, Ukraine regained control of the strategically important Snake Island in the Black Sea, allowing it to safely transport grain cargo ships along the Romanian coast.
Video: How is this possible? They helped the Israelis, but not us, say the Ukrainians (April 26, 2024)
“How is this possible? They helped Israel, we have to put up with it,” described a journalist from Ukraine | Video: Martin Novák