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Battle of the Tendra Spit | |||||||
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Part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Ukraine | Russia | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Col. Serhii Lupanchuk [1] | Vice Admiral Vladimir Vorobyov Vice Admiral Sergei Pinchuk | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Baltic Fleet Black Sea Fleet | |||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
20–25 killed 1 captured 3 landing boats sunk 1–4 landing boats captured | 2 wounded |
The battle of the Tendra Spit was an engagement that took place on the Tendra Spit, a narrow spit of land in the Kherson Oblast, on the Black Sea, northwest of the Crimean Peninsula from the night of 28 February 2024 [2] [3] to the morning of 29 February 2024. [4] [5]
Five boats loaded with Ukrainian soldiers from the 73rd Naval Center of Maritime Special Operations, a hand-picked unit specializing in clandestine maritime attacks, approached a low-lying sandy beach and attempted to land. [6] As Ukrainian troops approached the landmass, they came under fire from Russian forces. [7] According to Russian Milbloger Kot Dobrokhod and the Kyiv Post , the ambush was carried out by infantry members of the Russian Baltic Fleet. [8] [9] After suffering heavy losses, Ukrainian forces were forced to withdraw. [10] Russian sources later posted multiple photos to social media showing the aftermath of the failed landing and weapons captured from the Ukrainians. Six bodies of Ukrainian soldiers can be seen in the photos. [11] Other images showed a pair of Western suppiled M2 Browning machine guns mounted on a boat, seven individual weapons and boxes of ammunition. The Russian information channel Readovka reported Russian troops had captured a Ukrainian flag. [12]
Russian units claimed that they sank three landing crafts and killed 20 Ukrainian soldiers. [13] The Russian defense ministry claimed that up to 25 Ukrainian personnel were killed while one was taken prisoner. Four boats were also captured, while a fifth vessel managed to escape. [14] [15] Russian milbloggers claimed that one boat and one prisoner were captured and that one boat managed to escape. A Russian Telegram account posted a picture of the captured Ukrainian soldier who was blindfolded with duct tape. [16] The press service of the Special Operations Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces posted about the operation on Telegram acknowledged losses but did not specify casualties. [17] The post read:
Soldiers of the 73rd Naval Special Operations Center died heroically during a combat mission in a clash with Russian invaders.
Ensuring the departure of the main forces of the group after the completion of a special task, the soldiers accepted their last battle, remaining in the formation forever.
The heroic and extremely difficult combat work of the SSO units on land, at sea and in the deep rear of the enemy is the daily contribution of SSO soldiers to victory over the enemy.
Always remember at what price our freedom is won.
Eternal memory and glory to fallen comrades!
Sincere condolences to the families of the victims!" [18] [19]
Special Operations Forces commander Colonel Serhii Lupanchuk stated: "During the performance of a combat mission, while engaging with Russian occupiers, warriors of the 73rd Marine Special Operations Center heroically died in battle. Providing cover for the withdrawal of the main forces of the group after completing a special task, the soldiers engaged in their final battle, forever remaining in the ranks." [20] [21]
Later, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry claimed that 4 soldiers had been killed despite images showing Ukrainian 6 soldiers dead. [22]
According to Kot Dobrokhod, two Russian soldiers were wounded by a drone strike.[ citation needed ]
On 2 March, Ukrainian reserve Major General Serhii Hryhorovych said that "the operation on the Tendra Spit had no strategic or tactical value". He also called for the officers who sent Ukrainian Special Forces soldiers to the Tendra Spit to be punished. [23]
The Black Sea Fleet is the fleet of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Mediterranean Sea. The Black Sea Fleet, along with other Russian ground and air forces on the Crimean Peninsula, are subordinate to the Southern Military District of the Russian Armed Forces. The fleet traces its history to its founding by Prince Potemkin on 13 May 1783 as part of the Imperial Russian Navy. The Russian SFSR inherited the fleet in 1918; with the founding of the Soviet Union in 1922, it became part of the Soviet Navy. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Black Sea Fleet was partitioned between the Russian Federation and Ukraine in 1997, with Russia receiving title to 82% of the vessels.
The Kinburn Spit is a spit in Mykolaiv Raion, Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine. Its only land access is through Kherson Oblast. It occupies the westernmost part of the Kinburn Peninsula, stretching west into the Black Sea between the Dnieper-Bug estuary to the north and the Yahorlyk Bay to the south. It is approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) long, with a width of about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) at its base, narrowing to about 100 metres (330 ft) in its western half.
Strilkove is a Ukrainian village in Henichesk raion of Kherson oblast. It belongs to Henichesk urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. In 2013 its population was 1,415, and was predominantly ethnic Russian.
Tendra Spit is a sandbar in the Black Sea and part of Kherson Oblast in Ukraine.
The Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine are areas of Ukraine that are currently controlled by Russia in the course of the Russo-Ukrainian War. In Ukrainian law, they are defined as the "temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine".
The Special Operations Forces are the special forces of Ukraine and one of the seven branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with headquarters in Kyiv.
Casualties in the Russo-Ukrainian War included six deaths during the 2014 annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, 14,200–14,400 military and civilian deaths during the War in Donbas, and up to 500,000 estimated casualties during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that started in 2014. The invasion became the largest attack on a European country since World War II. It is estimated to have caused tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties and hundreds of thousands of military casualties. By June 2022, Russian troops occupied about 20% of Ukrainian territory. From a population of 41 million in January 2022, about 8 million Ukrainians had been internally displaced and more than 8.2 million had fled the country by April 2023, creating Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. Extensive environmental damage caused by the war, widely described as an ecocide, contributed to food crises worldwide.
The southern Ukraine campaign is an ongoing theatre of operation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on 24 February 2022. From their base in Russian-occupied Crimea, the Russian Armed Forces attacked Kherson Oblast, Mykolaiv Oblast, and Zaporizhzhia Oblast in southern Ukraine, battling the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The battle of Kherson took place between Russian and Ukrainian forces that began on 24 February 2022, as part of the southern Ukraine campaign of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The battle ended on 2 March 2022 with the capture of the city of Kherson, along with surrounding land on the right bank of the Dnieper river, by Russian forces. Russia then began a military occupation of the area.
The 126th Separate Guards Gorlovskaya Twice Red Banner, Order of the Suvorov Coastal Defense Brigade is a formation of the Coastal Defence Troops of the Russian Navy. Its Military Unit Number is 12676. It was granted the "Guards" honorific after suffering heavy losses in an unsuccessful attempt to capture Voznesensk, southern Ukraine, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The brigade is part of the 22nd Army Corps, Coastal Forces of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The brigade's garrison is located in Perevalne, in the Simferopol region of the Russian-occupied Republic of Crimea.
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia occupied vast portions of the territory of Ukraine, having already occupied parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts as well as the entire Autonomous Republic of Crimea since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2014. Partisan groups began to be organized in mid-2022. These groups have been involved in intelligence-gathering, sabotage, and assassinations. Much of their activity has taken place in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
A military counteroffensive was launched by Ukraine on 29 August 2022 to expel Russian forces occupying the southern regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts.
Beginning in July 2022, a series of explosions and fires occurred on the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula from where the Russian Army had launched its offensive on Southern Ukraine during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Occupied since 2014, Crimea was a base for the subsequent Russian occupation of Kherson Oblast and Russian occupation of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The Ukrainian government has not accepted responsibility for all of the attacks.
On 11 November 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated and recaptured the city of Kherson and other areas of the Kherson Oblast and parts of the Mykolaiv Oblast on the right bank of the Dnipro River from Russian control. The Russian Armed Forces, which had occupied the city since 2 March 2022, withdrew and retreated to the left bank of the Kherson Oblast over the course of 9–11 November 2022.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Russo-Ukrainian War:
The Dnieper campaign is a series of clashes that are occurring along the river Dnieper (Dnipro) in Kherson Oblast, Ukraine, as part of the fighting in the southern theater of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Specifically, this campaign refers to clashes along the river between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Russian Armed Forces during and after the Ukrainian counteroffensive to retake Kherson.
This timeline of the Russian invasion of Ukraine covers the period from 1 December 2023 to the present day.