Russian troops have recently forcibly relocated 37 residents from the settlements on the Kinburn Spit, Mykolaiv Oblast Governor Vitaliy Kim said on Nov. 30.
The narrow, 10-kilometer-long Kinburn Spit is part of Mykolaiv Oblast but it's attached to mainland Kherson Oblast in the south of Ukraine.
Kim said that Ukraine is currently conducting a counteroffensive operation to liberate the spit.
On Nov. 21, the Ukrainian military said that the operation to push the Russian forces out of the Kinburn Spit on the left bank of the Dnipro River was underway. The statement came over a week after Ukraine liberated Kherson city and other areas on the river's right bank.
The Institute of the Study of War said on Nov. 28 that Russian fortifications on and around the Kinburn Spit suggest Moscow views the chance of a Ukrainian counteroffensive across the Dnipro River as a severe threat.
Russian forces "very likely expect" Ukraine to take the spit but will try to prevent its troops from advancing into mainland Kherson Oblast with layered lines of defense that Russian forces can fall back on if one collapses, the ISW said.
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