Krynki battleground: The costly fight for Dnieper's left bank

The operation to establish a position and expand the bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnieper by Ukrainian forces lasted from mid-October 2023 to July 2024. The fighting mainly focused on the village of Krynki, where Kyiv's defensive forces managed to secure a bridgehead. However, this came at the cost of hundreds of soldiers' lives. "I saw hell and it's called Krynki," said one of the Ukrainian defenders.

• The operation by Ukrainian forces to establish a position and expand the bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnieper lasted from mid-October 2023 to July 2024.
• The fighting mainly focused on the village of Krynki – the only place on the left bank of the Kherson region where defensive forces managed to secure a bridgehead. The village was held by marine brigades and separate divisions of the Territorial Defence brigades.
• On 17 July, the spokesperson for the "Tawria" brigade, Dmytro Lyhov, informed "Sledstvo.Info" that "The Defence Forces are continuing their defensive operation on the left bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region, especially in the Krynki area."
• According to "Sledstvo.Info", Ukrainian troops are currently fighting for the islands between the right and left banks near the village of Krynki. However, on 17 July, Ukrayinska Pravda reported that orders were issued for Ukrainians to withdraw from Krynki.
• During the defence of this settlement, hundreds of Ukrainian families received reports of their sons, husbands, fathers, and brothers missing.

Vasyl, a 24-year-old contract worker. A marine soldier from the 505th Battalion of the 37th Brigade with the call sign "Fartowego," stayed in Krynki for 72 days – from 2 December 2023 to 14 February 2024.

He celebrated his birthday and New Year there. When the boat came for him, they always loaded the wounded first, and Vasyl had to stay and wait for the next one.

"Towards Donetsk, it happened that an evacuation vehicle arrived within an hour. And then we entered Krynki. Like in a ring. Russians in front, Russians on the left, and Russians on the right. And water behind. There's nowhere to retreat, and you can't do it in winter," recalls the marine soldier.

He adds that they waited up to 10 days for evacuation boats. "There were times when boys lay with severed limbs for 10 days, and the boats couldn't reach us," he adds.

In various chats on the Viber app, you can find thousands of messages from hundreds of people looking for their loved ones in Krynki. Under every video about this settlement, mothers write that they are looking for their sons, "and maybe someone heard something", "knows" or "can recognise this boy."

"He was an electrician and mechanic in a unit in Volyn. He served in the 35th Brigade, 88th Battalion. Initially, Oleg stayed in a unit in the Mykolaiv region. And then he calls me and says, 'Mum, they're sending me to the 'wild duck.' Mum, I don't want to say anything, but I might not come back.' He called me on 2 April this year. And since then there has been no contact with him. On 19 May, I received a notification that my child was missing, and then an act indicating that he was missing. I called the commanders, they said he died, but they couldn't retrieve his body. Two other boys who went there with him also lost contact," says Svitlana.

Oleg, 33, Mykolaiv region. On 5 March 2022, he volunteered to fight in the 18th Battalion of the 35th Marine Brigade. He was a sniper. "I'm looking. Some people say they saw his body, others that there was shelling. We can't find out what happened there," says Anastasia about her younger brother Oleg Kostov.

"On 16 April, he called and said he would have a combat mission on the left bank of the Dnieper and that he would call back in three days, but he never did. In the brigade, I heard that he was missing," says Anastasia. Military friends said they saw Oleg lying down, and then the body disappeared.

Yevheniy Smulski, 23, worked in Poland, but on 28 February 2022, with the start of the full-scale operation, returned to defend the country. He joined the 88th Battalion of the 35th Marine Brigade.

He served as a medic in the battalion. Before the war, he worked on an ambulance.

"He's short for me, so we called him 'Smurf'... The last time he called us on 9 April, he said, 'Mum, they're sending us to the left bank. We're not allowed to take the phone with us. I'll call you when I return.' For two and a half months, comrades sent me greetings from him. Once a week, his commander called me and said he was fine because his phone was off. We called, searched for phones, and everyone said he was alive. On 17 June, we received an official letter that he was missing. Even if bodies were taken out from there... these Krynki are a trap," says Yevheniy's mother.

Denys with the call sign "Shop" – commander of the assault company of one of the battalions of the 35th Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which fought and is still conducting operations over the Dnieper, says that the defence of the bridgehead near Krynki was a necessary task. "Otherwise, the Russians themselves would try to land boats on the right bank," he adds.

Some participants of the landing believed that initially, it was possible to defend the village and try to expand the bridgehead. Still, when it was destroyed, and not even ruins remained, somewhere at the end of winter, maintaining these positions became a 'one-way road' for many.

According to official police data, 788 men were reported missing in Krynki between October 2023 and the end of June 2024 after the action in Krynki.

At the same time, the number of fallen soldiers whose bodies were retrieved from this hell is 262 defenders. This means that over a thousand Ukrainian defenders died near Krynki in nine months. "I saw hell. I called it Krynki," said one of the Ukrainian defenders.