Ukraine says that up to 5,000 Russian troops are believed to have died on islands in the Dnipro River so far this year after being cut off from other Russian forces, the Daily Mail reported Tuesday.
Since Ukrainian forces liberated Kherson in November 2022, the nearby river has formed a new front line — and thousands of Russian soldiers are cut off from other Russian troops and starving to death on islands there in the marshy islet “death zone.”
Relentless drone flights, artillery clashes, and night raids have turned the area into one of the war’s most perilous battlefields, as Ukrainian soldiers watch the marooned Russians from elevated positions along the right bank.
With that topological advantage, Ukrainian troops can observe the area and direct drone strikes and artillery fire to the exposed islets, where the landscape offers little cover for Russian soldiers from aerial attacks, according to the Daily Mail.
When small numbers of Russian troops try to reconnect with their fellow soldiers by sneaking across the river in small boats, they are also easily seen by the Ukrainians and killed.
“The area is a death zone for Russia,” Col. Oleksandr Zavtonov of Ukraine’s 30th Marine Corps said, explaining that “there is nowhere to hide.”
Zavtonov added that “the prisoners that our fighters recently took on the islands talked about the inability to deliver food and drinking water to them. They have to drink water from the river.”
Oksana Kuzan, head of the analytical department at the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center, said that “Russian military units remaining on the islands in the Dnipro delta are facing serious problems with food, ammunition and rotations.”
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