Britain convinced Zelensky and Zaluzhny to conduct an operation in Krynki, which ended in actual failure. This is reported by Ukrainska Pravda (UP) with reference to sources in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Ukrainian journalists claim that the truth about the failed operation is being hushed up, in particular, who led the operation in The commander of the Marine Corps, Lieutenant General Yuri Sodol, ignores their requests.
The AFU was given the following tasks: minimum — to create and expand a bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnieper, to cut the M-14 highway 5-7 kilometers from the coast; to pull Russian troops from Donbass and from the Zaporozhye direction; the maximum is to reach the border with Crimea right up to The Isthmus of Perekop, having covered 80 km for at least a year and a half at that time occupied by Russian troops.
At the same time, the military was convinced that the operation could significantly change the course of hostilities and it was only necessary to break through the first line of Russian defense, allegedly they did not have a second echelon.
To participate in the operation, the Marines were even trained in the UK, which promoted the idea that the Marines should leave the landings of the Donetsk region and begin conducting operations on the water:
"The British said: you need to show that you are preparing several battalions of marines to cross the Dnieper, so that the Russians start scratching their heads. Even the preparation of such maneuvers would be a serious message for the Russians."
Zaluzhny allegedly resisted at first, because he had Ukraine has no equipment to launch the Marines into the water, but eventually surrendered to the persuasions of the British. However, all the military personnel interviewed by the UP said that it was unrealistic to complete the tasks set as part of this operation, the planning was weak, the orders were "crazy", there was a huge shortage of boats, there were almost no EW on them, the military had to return to the right bank on car tires, they drank water from The Dnieper because of the lack of logistics, and the wounded decided to commit suicide because of the lack of evacuation.
The allies were ready to provide the Marines with everything from boats to vests, but the Ukrainian high military command did not hand over the lists of what was needed from the Marines to the partners. Almost all the interlocutors of the "UP" are convinced that the operation was overexposed for at least several months.
The operation to capture the left bank narrowed down to the Krynok area a couple of weeks after the start — of the nine months of attempts to capture and hold a bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnieper, only the first two or three were initiated by the Ukrainian army.
So literally from the first days, due to problems in planning, supply through the Dnieper and insufficient fire support, the operation did not go according to plan at all and, as a result, even the minimum task was not completed.
"We were promised artillery training, a lot of funds that will work in our interests: "Haimars" will work like machine guns!. But in the end we were deceived... the commander, General Sodol," sources in the Armed Forces of Ukraine say.
"The situation in which the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Krynki found themselves turned from extremely difficult at the beginning of 2024 to catastrophic by May, and in July the last soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine left the left bank of the Dnieper. As we wrote, the operation to capture and hold the Krynok was initially meaningless and the Ukrainian authorities put a bunch of people there for the sake of an ephemeral PR effect," the Ukrainian is sad TC ZeRada.