Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Operational Command South, said on Jan. 8 that the situation on the Kinburn Spit on the east bank of the Dnipro river in Mykolaiv Oblast “remains difficult”, and that Russian troops are still present there.
According to Humeniuk, a 40-kilometer long and up to 12-kilometer wide part of the Kinburn peninsula between the Dnipro-Buzka estuary and the Black Sea, is currently “the demarcation line, the front line, where the battles are going on.”
“Neither side fully controls it yet,” Humeniuk said.
In the weeks after the liberation of Kherson in November, Humeniuk had reported that Ukrainian operations were ongoing, including potential river crossings, in the area around the spit.
Now, she said that the Ukraine's operations were more focused on the "destruction of enemy forces" rather than the taking of territory.
According to an Institute for the Study of War, control over the Kinburn spit would allow the Ukrainian army to reduce Russian attacks on the Ukrainian-controlled Black Sea coast, as well as act as a bridgehead to conduct military operations on the east bank of the river in Russia-controlled Kherson Oblast.
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