20 May: Fooled & Outplayed! Ukrainians Set Up A Deadly Trap In Krynky - Reporting from Ukraine

Day 817: May 20

Today, there is a lot of news from the Kherson direction.

In light of the recent liberation of the island of Nestryga, the Russians were forced to divert forces from the already challenging Ukrainian foothold in Krynky. This shift further implicated their efforts to finally deal with the Ukrainians, who had been holding their ground for months despite the odds. The Ukrainians have recently developed and refined new tactics to create even more problems for the Russians in the region.

In recent weeks, the Ukrainians have maintained the initiative in the region. Their army Spokeswoman Nataliya Humenyuk emphasized that Russian forces are unable to use armored vehicles for assaults on Krynky anymore due to heavy equipment losses which is a direct result of the local Ukrainian electronic warfare and drone superiority and the better coordination between their drone and artillery units in the region. She noted that these factors have forced the Russians to change their tactics, now resorting to daily light infantry assaults near Krynky, which result in heavy casualties.

The ongoing Russian struggle to eliminate the Ukrainian bridgehead has resulted in the dismissal of Lieutenant General Arkady Marzoev, commander of the 18th Combined Arms Army, by the Russian Ministry of Defense. His removal was due to his failure to recapture the lost territory around Krynky. Anticipating the disruptions caused by this leadership change, the Ukrainians seized the opportunity to expand their presence and intensify their efforts in and around the village.

In an effort to compensate for their lack of real success, the Russians have repeatedly claimed they have cleared Krynky of all Ukrainian forces. As you may remember, this included several attempts to raise a Russian flag in the ruins around Krynky as proof of that, which led only to the destruction of the personnel involved in these operations. Ukrainians decided to prove that they could not only do this better but also give this action a more meaningful purpose, so they started to deliver and put Ukrainian flags by using drones. This enabled them to reach hard-to-get places and preserve the valuable lives of their soldiers. Again, using drone technology to their advantage, the Ukrainians started putting flags in multiple places along the east bank of the Dnipro River.

The first instance of this tactic was a direct response to one such Russian attempt around Krynky that was followed by a claim that the village was now under Russian control. In reaction, Ukrainian drone operators dropped a flag in the middle of a field near the settlement, knowing the Russian commanders would send troops to remove it by any means. Attempting to do so in the open field meant certain death for those sent on this mission. The Ukrainian flag stayed for a long time due to multiple failed Russian attempts to take it down.

Building on this tactic, Ukrainian fighters decided to take this tactic up a notch and started putting flags on higher objects which are very hard to reach. The first such case can be seen in the following geolocated footage from Krynky, which shows how a flag is positioned on a water pump to provoke a reaction from the Russians. Such actions push Russian forces to try to remove these flags as quickly as possible either by sending their valuable FPV drones to blow them up, an often challenging task, especially on the first try, or, in most cases, by sending troops to do it manually, disregarding their life which is in constant danger while doing it.

Encouraged by the success of this tactic, Ukrainians began employing it in more villages along the Russian side of the river. Geolocated footage from Kozachi Laheri highlights just how dangerous this can be. As seen in the previous instances, Ukrainians typically place flags on high-ground objects with good visibility, like chimneys and water pumps. This time, they enhanced their tactic further by setting a deadly trap. A drone operator first lands an FPV drone without a flag on top of a water pump, aiming to arouse Russian suspicion. When Russian commanders send a soldier to investigate, he begins climbing to inspect the object. Meanwhile, the Ukrainians use another drone to monitor the situation...