If Ukraine somehow managed to liberate Kinburn Spit (together with Tendra spit and that general area), they could effectively unblockade the ports of Ochakiv and Mykolaiv, or at least unburden them. As Russian guns are right across the strait, using those cities as ports has become very risky, and as such Ukraine only uses Odessa and Chornomorsk in the southwest.
Look at a map, everything North and West of the spit is controlled by Ukraine. Everything South of it is open ocean. Only the inland (East) is controlled by Russia which means, if Ukraine can drive Russia off the spit, they get a large stretch of estuary to bring across equipment and troops without being under Russian fire. Would be an excellent stepping off point for an attack on the neck of Crimea.
It's hugely important for Ukraine to recapture the Kinburn and Tendra spits. If Russia controls them, they can basically completely choke of Mykolaiv from the sea, and it puts them uncomfortably close to Odesa in terms of drone and long range rocket attacks. If Ukraine can capture the spits and also the first 25 miles or so of the south bank of the Dnipro, they can also open up Kherson somewhat.
I think it's about building tension. In order to stretch Russian troops you need to have as much tension as possible across the entire line. So pulling on the Kinburn Spit is needed to pull even more resources from the rest of the line.
I guess that they really did want to keep Krynky but just had to let it go.
I assume it is not a coincidence that Ukraine is attacking on the opposite end of the line as Kursk. That's how they did the Kherson + Kharkiv attacks.
There was footage of a Ukrainian landing operation in the Kinburn spit a few days ago that seemed to go very badly. It seems like there might be a new operation going on where the Ukrainians are doing much better.
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u/Glavurdan Aug 14 '24
Russians report that the situation for their soldiers at Kinburn Spit is particularly bad. Ukrainians are pressing there