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Sat, Jan 6, 2024 7:51 p.m. +0100 bJan 6, 2024 7:51 p.m. c
Updated: June 1, 2024 7:51 p.m. Issued: June 1, 2024 7:51 p.m
Ukrainian soldiers on the banks of the Dnieper near the front line near Kherson, November 15, 2023. AP/Mstyslav Chernov
Kherson (Ukraine) – Wounded soldiers drowned because they could not swim with their injuries, and some fighters were dragged to the bottom of the Dnieper with heavy backpacks. Russian shelling, shots from the back, damp, cold. Several members of the Ukrainian Marines told the American newspaper “The Washington Post” their experiences from recent operations on the left bank of the Great River, which separates the area controlled by Kiev from the Ukrainian areas occupied by Russia in the south of Ukraine. One of them is twenty-one-year-old Dmytro.
On the day his unit set out on the east bank of the Dnieper in a desperate attempt to recapture Russian-occupied territory, the Marine woke up feeling “ready to die.” The diary describes the beginning of one of the military missions, which, according to him, began at the end of last summer. That is, around the time of the stalled counteroffensive, when Ukraine’s military and political leaders tried to show Western allies progress on the battlefield.
According to Dmytro, he set out to cross the river with three cans of sardines, six loaves of bread and more than 45 kilograms of ammunition and other equipment. The operation would take several days – if he survived that long. During the river crossing, which, according to WP, took half an hour to an hour, he felt like “a piece of meat thrown to the wolves.”
Just before sunrise, Dmytro’s battalion approached the shallow sandbank and split into pairs. The morning fog offered them some protection from the Russian drones that hunted them from the sky, the newspaper describes. Their goal was to advance to the village of Krynky, located about three dozen kilometers upriver from the city of Kherson.
As Dmytro’s boots sank into the mud, he buried his thoughts in his wife and their child, writes WP, pointing out that this soldier only found out about the mission a few days in advance, thought it was not well planned and did not I have no idea what happened. The bank of the Dnieper awaits you on your left. But he didn’t think it was worth his life.
Johnson, a 40-year-old Boy Scout commander identified by the Washington Post by his call sign, also knows that feeling. In the summer he was given the task of cleaning up the islands that Dmytro would later cross. The survey team found it difficult to navigate the shallow marshlands by boat. Johnson often had to tow the ship up to 20 meters to reach deeper waters. On the left bank the positions were shallow and difficult to fortify. The team failed to start a fire and the soldiers’ clothing remained damp and cold, the diary says.
Although the Ukrainians managed to reclaim the islands, the price was high, he said. Johnson’s commanding officer died in a grenade explosion in September. Marines who continue to cross the river are in grave danger, the soldier warned. “I think it’s unbearable at the moment. I don’t want to be in their shoes,” Johnson said.
Meanwhile, two pairs of soldiers set off in front of Dmytro. Waves crashed against the riverbank and the wetlands rippled in the strong wind, the diary says. Dmytro looked at his comrade, who cursed. “This plan is…” he said using an expletive.
At that moment the shelling began. According to Dmytro, communications failed and the pair were unable to link up with a Ukrainian mortar squad to strike back. By 8 a.m., only 12 of the 30 Marines were uninjured. Two died. “We couldn’t fight people wearing tourniquets. We had to wait for new people to replace the wounded,” Dmytro explained.
Previously, the archipelago offered good protection with tall cattails and broad bushes. But on the eastern bank, vegetation was sparse and the forest heavily mined, so soldiers dug trenches and covered themselves with sandbags, WP writes, adding that they waited nearly eight hours. “When everything explodes from all sides, you start living from minute to minute and don’t think about anything at all,” Dmytro confided.
Later, members of the Marines advanced to Krynká with about a dozen reinforcements, 45 people marched in groups of two or three, the Washington Post describes. Suddenly Dmytro heard a shot behind him. This must be a mistake, he thought. The survey team claimed that no one would be there. “Our!” he shouted, mistaking it for friendly fire. They were Russians. The infantry returned fire. The soldiers survived the night and fought their way to Krynky, where Ukrainian forces were holed up in the ruins of houses while nearby Russian troops prepared to retake the area, the Washington Post reports.
The next day, a grenade exploded, sending shrapnel the size of a matchstick into Dmytro’s hip. The explosion caused a concussion. They evacuated him through a disfigured landscape. The bodies of some fallen Marines remained where they were, unable to free them under fire, writes WP. By the end of the mission, at least five more men had died and twenty were injured, according to Dmytro. In the meantime, he was sent home to recover. After his return he should return to the east bank.
According to the newspaper, Dmytro’s statement was confirmed by six other soldiers who took part in the operation to hold on the left bank of the river. “We have a lot of casualties,” said the unnamed 22-year-old Marine. “We are just losing people, but there is no result,” he added.
Ukraine does not provide any information on the number of military casualties and, according to the WP, would not even say how many Marines died in the operations in which they recaptured just a few square kilometers of territory on the eastern bank of the Dnieper. “We remain silent on this matter for now,” a Ukrainian Marine Corps spokesman said. However, the army admits that it has had few successes. “There are no liberated villages on the eastern bank,” said Ukrainian Army Southern Command spokeswoman Natalya Khumenyukova.
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