Nine months of hell: Ukrainian forces' brutal stand in Krynky

The operation conducted by Ukrainian forces to seize positions and expand a bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnipro lasted from mid-October 2023 to July 2024. The battles were primarily fought over the village of Krynky, where Kyiv's defensive forces managed to secure a foothold. However, this came at the cost of hundreds of soldiers' lives. "I saw hell, and it is called Krynky," said one of the Ukrainian defenders.

• Ukrainian forces operated from mid-October 2023 to July 2024, seizing positions and expanding a bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnipro.
• The battles were primarily fought over the village of Krynky, the only village on the left bank of the Kherson region where defensive forces managed to secure a foothold. The village was held by Marine brigades and separate divisions of the Territorial Defense Forces brigades.
• On July 17, Dmytro Lykhov, the spokesman for the "Tavria" brigade, informed "Slijdstwo.Info" that "Defensive Forces are still conducting a defensive operation on the left bank of the Dnipro in the Kherson region, particularly in the Krynky area."
• According to "Slijdstwo.Info," Ukrainian forces are currently fighting over the islands between the right and left banks near the village of Krynky. However, on July 17, Ukrainian Pravda reported that an order was given for Ukrainians to withdraw from Krynky.
• During the defense of this settlement, hundreds of Ukrainian families received reports that their sons, husbands, fathers, and brothers were missing.

Vasyl, a 24-year-old contract worker, was a Marine soldier from the 505th battalion of the 37th brigade, call sign "Fartovoj." He stayed in Krynky for 72 days – from December 2, 2023, to February 14, 2024.

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

“In the direction of Donetsk, an evacuation vehicle arrived within an hour. And then we entered Krynky. Like a ring. Russians in front, Russians to the left, and Russians to the right. And water behind. There is nowhere to retreat; you can't do it in winter," recalls the Marine soldier.

He adds that they waited for evacuation boats for up to 10 days. "It happened that boys lay with severed limbs for 10 days, and the boats could not reach us," he adds.

On various Viber chatrooms, you can find thousands of messages from hundreds of individuals searching for their loved ones in Krynky. Under each video about this settlement, mothers write that they are looking for their sons, saying, "Maybe someone heard something," "knows," or "can recognize this boy."

"He was an electrician and mechanic in a unit in Volyn. He served in the 35th Brigade, 88th Battalion. Initially, Oleg was in a detachment in the Mykolaiv region. And then he called me and said: "Mom, they are sending me to the 'wild duck,' mom. I don't want to say anything, but I might not return." He called me on April 2 of this year. And since then, there's been no contact with him. On May 19, I received a notification about the disappearance of my child and then a document stating that he was missing. I called the commanders; they said he died, but they couldn't retrieve his body. Another two boys who went with him also haven't made contact," says Svitlana.

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

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

Yevgeny Smulski, 23 years old, worked in Poland, but on February 28, 2022, with the start of the full-scale operation, he 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 is short to me, so we called him ‘Smurf.’ The last time he called us was on April 9. He said: "Mom, they are sending us to the left bank; we are not allowed to take the phone with us; I will call you when I return." For two and a half months, his comrades sent me greetings from him. Once a week, his commander called me to say he was okay because his phone was off. We called and searched for phones, and everyone said he was alive. On June 17, an official letter came stating he was missing. Even if bodies were taken from there... those Krynky are a trap,” says Yevgeny's mother.

Denys, call sign "Raccoon," the commander of an assault company in one of the battalions of the 35th Armed Forces brigade of Ukraine, which fought and continues to conduct operations along the Dnipro, says that defending the bridgehead near Krynky was a necessary task. “Otherwise, the Russians themselves would have tried to land boats on the right bank,” he adds.

Some of the landing participants believe that the village could have been initially defended, and an attempt was made to expand the bridgehead. However, once it was utterly destroyed and not even ruins remained, somewhere towards the end of winter, the task of holding these positions became a "one-way street" for many.

After the action in Krynky, according to official police data, 788 men were missing between October 2023 and the end of June 2024.

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 Krynky over 9 months. “I saw hell. I call it Krynky,” said one of the Ukrainian defenders.