Ukrainian Marines Seized A Bridgehead Across The Dnipro River. Now The Russian Air Force Is...

On Oct. 19, Ukrainian marines speeded across the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast. Landing near Krynky, a three-mile-wide settlement on the Dnipro’s Russian-controlled left bank, the marines kicked off a series of infantry actions that, over the next few weeks, would result in Russian forces retreating from Krynky, and Ukrainian forces digging in.

A year after a swift Ukrainian counteroffensive liberated northern Kherson Oblast and chased the Russians across the Dnipro, a much more tentative Ukrainian counteroffensive, supported by a heroic electronic-warfare campaign, is edging the Russians away from the river’s far side.

Struggling to organize a mechanized counterattack that could, in concept, force the Ukrainian marine corps back across the Dnipro, Russian forces are resorting to massive aerial firepower. The Russian air force has been hammering both sides of the Dnipro with long-range precision glide-bombs.

If they can’t force the Ukrainians out of their Krynky bridgehead, the Russians might just try blowing up the bridgehead. Ukrainian troops fear the powerful Universal Gliding and Correction Module bombs more than they do most Russian weapons.

Now those bombs—potentially a lot of them—are hammering a tiny sliver of a settlement sheltering the most forward, and most exposed, Ukrainian forces.

Three weeks after the Ukrainian marines landed in Krynky, the Russians on the Dnipro’s left bank knew they had a problem. “A bridgehead was created in an area that, on our side, was very poorly covered by very weak troops,” one Russian servicemember wrote.