Former Aidar commander discusses plans to outflank Russians from rear before dam blast
At the beginning of the Ukraine’s counter-offensive, the Ukrainian Armed Forces were planning to bypass the Surovikin line from the rear, but Russia made this impossible by blowing up the Kakhovka dam, a Ukrainian army officer has said.
Read also: Zelenskyy meets with military leaders in Kherson to address ongoing frontline challenges
Former Aidar battalion company commander Yevhen Dykyi said in an interview with Radio NV on Oct. 21 that according to the original plan, large forces, including mechanized units, were to be transferred from the west to the east bank of the Dnipro River.
"The Russians assessed their forces, realized that they simply could not stop it, and then they found a really, unfortunately, from a military point of view, a brilliant way out, although this is the worst environmental disaster in Ukraine after Chornobyl — the explosion of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant," Dykyi said.
Read also: Zelenskyy visits Kherson Oblast, meets with border guards
“From a military point of view, the explosion of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant gave them what they needed: it made it impossible for us to land on the left (east) bank with mechanized forces.”
However, now the water has receded and the soil has dried up, so "technically speaking" such a landing is possible again, Dykyi argued.
"What is happening now, we can definitely say one thing: we are definitely testing the possibility or impossibility of returning to plan A."
“Landing on the bridgehead means landing under enemy fire, under enemy artillery. It’s possible to land on the shore, but whether it is possible to deploy further and break through is a big question.”
He drew attention to the fact that now the operation on the east bank of the Dnipro involves marine units that were not involved before. After the liberation of Kherson city, only the Defense Intelligence and the Special Operations Forces were raiding the Russian-occupied east bank of the Dnipro.
"It may be just an extended raid, it may be a serious enough probing of their defense to understand whether it is possible to land there at all," concluded the former Aidar battalion company commander.
“Or it may be the first attempt, it will be clear enough in a few days at the earliest.”
According to the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War, the new operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the east bank of the Dnipro River, in the occupied part of Kherson Oblast, surpasses the scale of previous raids.
ISW analysts suggest that Ukrainian forces are likely to maintain a "limited presence" in some areas on the east bank near the Dnipro shoreline and the Antonivskyi railway bridge.
The first reports from Russian milbloggers about the breakthrough of some Ukrainian Armed Forces units across the Dnipro appeared on Oct. 17-18.
On Oct. 19, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that Russia had launched an airstrike on the occupied village of Pishchanivka in Kherson Oblast, which could indicate the presence of Ukrainian troops there.
Read also: Ukrainian forces make strategic advances in Kherson Oblast, ISW reports
On the same day, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting with the military command in Kherson to discuss the situation on the front line.
The meeting was attended by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Serhiy Shaptala, Commander of the Marine Corps of the Ukrainian Navy Yuriy Sodol, and Commander of the Odesa Operational and Strategic Group of Forces Andriy Hnatov.
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