News Feed

Military: Ukraine regaining control over Nestryha Island in Kherson Oblast complicates Russian advances

2 min read
Military: Ukraine regaining control over Nestryha Island in Kherson Oblast complicates Russian advances
Ukrainian soldiers sail on a boat to conduct an operation on the Russian-occupied eastern bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson Oblast on Sept. 14, 2023. (Kostiantyn Liberov & Vladyslava Liberova/Getty Images)

Ukraine's control over Nestryha Island in Kherson Oblast is tactically important and will make it more difficult for Russian forces to approach Ukrainian positions, Dmytro Pletenchuk, a spokesperson for the Southern Defense Forces, told Hromadske Radio on April 29.

Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on April 28 that Ukrainian troops had taken control of Nestryha Island in the Dnipro River delta in Kherson Oblast and advanced near the village of Veletenske.

Nestryha Island was considered a "gray zone" and is the last in a group of small islands followed by the river mouth, Pletenchuk said, saying that the re-established control holds "tactical importance."

Russian troops use locations such as the islands in Kherson Oblast to get closer to Ukraine's positions, the spokesperson added.

Article image
Subscribe to newsletter
War Notes


"This (control over Nestryha Island) is primarily important for the quality of counter-sabotage measures. This location has been cleared of possible enemy presence," Pletenchuk said.

Syrskyi said that Russian forces are trying to push Ukrainian troops out of Krynky in Kherson Oblast, but they are failing to do so. For months of heavy battles, Ukraine has reportedly repelled Russian attacks around the small village.

Ukraine's Armed Forces liberated Kherson and other regional settlements on the Dnipro River's west bank in November 2022. Russian forces were pushed to the east bank, from where they have since been firing at the liberated territories.

Ukrainian soldiers storming eastern bank of Dnipro fear their mission is hopeless
Editor’s note: Full names and the deployment locations of the soldiers interviewed for this story are not disclosed since they weren’t authorized to speak to the press. KHERSON OBLAST – Mortars are the first things that greet the Ukrainian soldiers who are lucky enough to make it across the Dnipro
Article image
News Feed

U.S. President Donald Trump's remarks come after the Financial Times (FT) reported, citing undisclosed sources, that he asked President Volodymyr Zelensky whether Kyiv could strike Moscow or St Petersburg if provided with long-range U.S. weapons.

"The stolen data includes confidential questionnaires of the company's employees, and most importantly, full technical documentation on the production of drones, which was handed over to the relevant specialists of the Ukrainian Defense Forces," a source in Ukraine's military intelligence told the Kyiv Independent.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called upon the EU to take action against Ukraine's conscription practices in an interview with Origo published on July 15, amid an ongoing dispute with Kyiv over the death of a Ukrainian conscript of Hungarian ethnicity.

Show More