GENICHESK, November 15. /TASS/. The Ukrainian military has lost roughly two battalions of personnel in its attempts to cross the Dnieper River in the Kherson Region, Regional Governor Vladimir Saldo said on Wednesday.
Currently, a company and a half of Ukrainian troops are staying in the area between a railway bridge and Krynki on the left bank of the Dnieper River, he specified.
"About a company and a half of enemy personnel, mostly small groups, are staying along the left bank’s area from the railway bridge to Krynki. The enemy has crossed the river by sending more personnel for some time than our firepower could destroy. To put it simply, the enemy has thrown troops for slaughter. It has already lost at least 1.5-2 full-fledged battalions at the crossing and during its stay on the left bank. The average period for a Ukrainian soldier to stay alive on the left bank is slightly over two days," Saldo wrote on his Telegram channel.
Russia’s Dnepr battlegroup has sealed off the Ukrainian army units that have crossed to the left bank of the Dnieper River in Krynki in the Kherson area, Saldo said.
"The enemy has been blocked in Krynki where it has come into a fiery hell: it is being bombarded by bombs, missiles, munitions of heavy flamethrower systems, artillery shells and drones. They are sitting in basements and running over one by one at night," he said.
Over the past two-three days, the Ukrainian military has suffered about 100 casualties, he specified.
Russian forces daily capture from 2 to 13 Ukrainian soldiers in the Kherson area, Saldo said.
"The moral condition of most of the Kiev regime’s soldiers is extremely low. There is nothing surprising in that: they are simply sent for slaughter. Practically every day, new groups numbering from 2-3 to 11-13 militants surrender to our troops," he said.
Former Ukrainian elite marine infantry units crossing the Dnieper River in the Kherson Region are now over 60% manned by mobilized recruits due to heavy casualties, Saldo said.
The Kiev regime has been preparing the operation to cross the Dnieper River for a long time under the supervision of NATO instructors. They have brought in the best military and radio-electronic hardware and the best of the remaining units and the remnants of mercenaries. According to Russian reconnaissance data, the enemy’s initial plans envisaged seizing Alyoshki by November 1, Novaya Kakhovka by November 15, Chaplinka by December 1 and Genichesk by December 15, Saldo said.
"The plans like Operation Barbarossa are in tatters, the regional governor stressed.
"The Kiev regime’s militants have actually no chances to make any breakthroughs. The West’s entire cunning plan studded with the Kiev regime’s pathos clowning has been shattered by the Russian soldier’s tenacity and unbreakable courage. We have shown them another Bakhmut, this time Dnieper’s Bakhmut. This is the name, under which this faulty operation will go down into history, if Kiev’s chieftain so strongly wishes so," Saldo said.