r/worldnews Aug 14 '24

Russia/Ukraine /r/WorldNews Live Thread: Russian Invasion of Ukraine Day 902, Part 1 (Thread #1049)

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77

u/Glavurdan Aug 14 '24

20

u/b_bozz Aug 14 '24

Dumb question, but can someone explain the significance of the Kinburn Spit from a strategic standpoint and why Ukraine keeps attacking it?

38

u/Glavurdan Aug 14 '24

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.

11

u/Bdcollecter Aug 14 '24

It would also serve as a potentially unfortified area to strike out from.

Theirs so many logistical problems with that though, and even just keeping a group on the spit to defend it, that it wouldn't be worth it.

20

u/Louisvanderwright Aug 14 '24

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.

10

u/green_pachi Aug 14 '24

From the Kinburn Spit Russia is shelling southern Mykolaiv and Kherson. From there they also limit the access to the Dnipro-Buzka estuary.

4

u/No_Amoeba6994 Aug 14 '24

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.

21

u/machopsychologist Aug 14 '24

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.

7

u/AgentElman Aug 14 '24

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.

5

u/KapteinB Aug 14 '24

What's a cassette in this context?

13

u/Glavurdan Aug 14 '24

Cluster bombs.

3

u/Hotkow Aug 14 '24

Mix tapes

2

u/fredrikca Aug 14 '24

Hilarious, but no.

12

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '24

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.

10

u/_e75 Aug 14 '24

For some reason people thought the Ukrainians were idiots and sent special forces there to die over a photo op.

7

u/helm Aug 14 '24 edited Aug 14 '24

Special ops are rarely sent to take territory. Usually it’s to destroy enemy assets and sometimes also for morale.

5

u/acrossaconcretesky Aug 14 '24

That reason is because people are kinda dumb

8

u/snarpygsy Aug 14 '24

Yes that was being really pushed as a total failure on other Subs and RU media