In Kherson, Ukrainians achieved a successful second bridgehead operation after deceiving Russian forces. Battles ensued, with unclear results in some areas.
On October 21, there are a lot of new developments in the Kherson region – YouTube channel Reporting from Ukraine reports.
Here, after fooling Russian forces by forcing them to focus on the wrong direction and subsequently penetrating Russian defenses from the other side, Ukrainians decided to expand the scale of their operation by creating a second bridgehead – and this operation turned out to be even more successful than the previous one.
But first of all, before conducting a landing operation on Krynky, a lot of fights took place around the first Ukrainian bridgehead on the eastern bank of the river. After losing 2 villages, Russian forces received an order to eliminate the bridgehead at all costs and started attacking Poima and Pishchanivka.
Ukrainian fighters were on the lookout for the moving forces and were destroying them on the approach. One of the videos shows the destruction of a truck fully loaded with ammunition for the Russian assault units. Another video shows how Ukrainian drone operators hunted down a car that was pulling a mortar system closer to Poima. Nonetheless, the clashes eventually took place, and Russian sources reported that Russians returned control over the villages. However, today, some Russian sources reported that the fighting in Pishchanivka is still ongoing. So far, the situation around these 2 villages is not fully clear, however, what is certain is that Ukrainians had enough time to entrench themselves in the residential areas on the islands, just like they did near the Antonivsky bridge. Russian sources reported that despite continuous airstrikes, Ukrainians maintain a permanent presence. And this is not surprising because Ukrainians have secured a continuous 20 km line of residential areas along the Dnipro River, which allows them to conduct rotation, evacuation, and supply forces with ammunition significantly easier.
While Russian forces were fighting near Pishchanivka, Ukrainians attacked Krynky. Ukrainian fighters recently released footage purported to show how two Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups crossed the Dnipro River and started slowly moving toward the settlement. Later, Russian sources reported that Ukrainians overwhelmed the Russian troops in the area, gained a foothold in the village, and are fighting to take full control of Krynky.
It seems like the Ukrainian commanders also took lessons from the first landing operation several days ago because the assault units used a slightly different tactic. Instead of focusing on taking control of the settlement and waiting there to meet the Russian counterattack, Ukrainians moved further out of the village and, according to Russian sources, advanced by almost two kilometers south and entrenched in the tree lines. This was a very clever move because it gave more room for maneuvering and, more importantly, created a buffer zone necessary to safely conduct rotation, evacuation, and transfer new forces and light equipment across the Dnipro River to support positions on the east bank. When Russian forces conducted a counterattack, they struggled to advance deeper into the settlement because of the Ukrainian positions in the tree lines. It seems like, at some point, the counterattack became too costly, and Russians started mostly relying on aviation.
Despite Russian resistance, Ukrainians managed to hold the bridgehead and continue their operations. The Institute for the Study of War assessed the situation and concluded that Ukrainian forces have been able to adequately supply and reinforce the groups conducting these operations. Moreover, Russian sources reported that due to the unfavorable weather conditions, their ability to use aviation effectively decreased. Given the lack of manpower, and the means to compensate for the lack of manpower in this region, Ukrainians may have plenty of opportunities for advancement.
Even though many Russian sources have been raising the alarm about the imminent massive landing operation and a sudden counteroffensive in the Kherson region, some military analysts claimed that a milder objective of Ukrainian forces here may be to force Russians to move here as many troops as possible, thereby undermining their defensive operation near Tokmak or offensive operation near Avdiivka. However, if Russians refuse to increase the number of forces for the protection of the eastern bank of the river, then a massive landing operation may become a possibility.
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