Ukraine said Thursday its defensive positions around the village of Krynky on the left bank of the Dnipro River in the southern Kherson region had been destroyed but that it was continuing operations there.
The comments from a military spokesman came after Ukrainian media reported that the army had quit a precarious bridgehead mission in the village that had drawn ire from Moscow.
“Ukraine’s defence forces are continuing to carry out combat missions on the left bank of the Dnipro river, including in the Krynky area,” military spokesman Dmytro Lykhoviy said on state television.
“However, it is true that most of the main positions of Ukrainian troops in this village have been completely destroyed as a result of intense, combined, long-term enemy fire,” he added.
Russia already claimed in February that its forces had cleared Ukrainian troops from the village that once had around 1,000 people, with President Vladimir Putin weighing in that the hamlet was under Moscow’s control.
Lykhoviy said Thursday that Krynky had been “completely destroyed” and had been reduced to rubble by Russian attacks.
“It is not a settlement anymore. It’s a place where it is virtually impossible to maintain defences,” he said.
“Besides Krynky, we have other bridgeheads, and combat work on the left bank of the Dnipro river is continuing.”
Russian forces captured swathes of the Kherson region when they invaded in February 2022 but Ukrainian troops recaptured the region’s capital in November of that year.
The Kremlin claimed in late 2022 to have annexed all of Kherson and its forces on the opposing bank of the Dnipro River have continued to shell the city.