CNN Exclusive: Ukraine’s fight for the Dnipro River

As Serhiy Ostapenko crouched in his pickup truck, hiding under trees for cover in the dead of night, the rumbles of Russian shelling echoed around him.

“The enemy is bombing us 24 hours a day. I don’t remember the last time there was silence for more than an hour,” said the 32-year-old Ukrainian drone pilot, speaking from the right bank of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine – one of the new front lines in an oppressive scenario. of the war that is now entering its second winter.

Ostapenko is a member of the “Sons of Thunder” drone unit, part of Ukraine’s operation to cross the Dnipro, repelling Russian forces and establishing a sustained presence on the left bank. Earlier this month, Ukraine said it had “gained a secure foothold” on the bank, a potentially significant breakthrough in what has so far been a lackluster counteroffensive.

But during CNN’s exclusive access to Ostapenko, his night mission had just been aborted because the Russians had identified his unit’s position on the right bank – forcing them to seek shelter.

“That’s another one — I think it was a rocket,” he told CNN as another boom sounded, his face illuminated only by a faint red light. “Every time I enter this zone… I always say goodbye to my life, because I realize that it could end at any moment, because a rocket or a grenade will explode. You get used to it, but it’s unpleasant.”

Advancing in Dnipro

The Dnipro, 2,200 kilometers long, is the fourth longest river in Europe, flowing from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea.

It winds through the swamps of the Russian-occupied Kherson region – with Russian troops forced to retreat across the river last November after being driven from the city of Kherson by Ukrainian fighters.

The city’s liberation, after eight months of brutal occupation, was a major victory and a key moment in Ukraine’s war effort. But the following year brought little relief, with the city of Kherson and the surrounding region still under relentless attack by Russian forces across the river.

Dnipro, which in some places stretches a mile wide, serves as a natural defensive barrier for Russian troops – which is partly why it has become an important target for Kiev.

Ukrainian forces have already carried out attacks across the river, but establishing a firm bridge across the river and repelling the Russians could help better protect the city of Kherson by increasing the distance between civilians and enemy artillery.

And – at least theoretically – an advance on the left bank could give Kiev a starting point to advance further south towards Crimea, the peninsula that Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

The Ukrainian military says it has pushed back Russian troops three to eight kilometers behind the river.

“Now our (troops) are advancing to the other side of Dnipro. It is very difficult, we make a lot of efforts to make this possible and to strengthen our strength on the other side of Dnipro,” Ostapenko said.

He added that “certain links” had been established across the river, allowing Ukrainian troops to transport “weapons, ammunition, food, fuel” to their partners “on the other side”.

Its aerial reconnaissance unit, meanwhile, works to provide cover for soldiers crossing the river, to monitor Russian troops and movements, and to help mask the location of Ukrainian troops and equipment.

It’s a dangerous job.

Ostapenko described facing a daily barrage of “kamikaze drones, I think they are Shaheds, rockets, probably Grad rocket launchers, mortars and tanks.”

But, he added, the bombing can be seen as a good sign: “the enemy is trying to resist as much as possible, which indicates that we are doing everything right. We are causing a lot of problems and (they are) trying to fight them.”

‘We have to survive’

At the same time, in the city of Kherson, the joy of last year’s liberation of the city has faded for some residents who focus only on surviving each day.

“When it’s quiet, it’s even scarier than when there are bombings,” said 54-year-old Inna Balyoha. “You’re waiting, you’re constantly listening, turning off the radio. So you can hear the sounds outside the window, so you can react to the bombing in time.”

She is one of around 73,000 residents still living in Kherson – less than a quarter of the original population of 300,000. Between having to care for her four-year-old grandson and her 87-year-old mother, “the decision not to leave was made a long time ago,” she said.

But living in the middle of war took its toll.

One of her grandson’s first words was “alarm,” she said. “He knows how to react if he hears an air raid siren. He knows where to go. If explosions are heard outside the window, he will have a little hiding place in the hallway.”

The shelling has gotten so bad that they have stopped going out for short walks, staying most of the time at home now.

“Right now, I’m doing everything in my power to keep the child safe,” she said. “Our main task is to survive. This was the main task during the occupation. And it is now. We have to survive.”

Attacks on Kherson intensified last month, reaching 700 shots in one day, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the military administration of the Kherson region.

Russian troops are “attacking residential areas more frequently as our defenders advance and attempt to intimidate ordinary citizens in locations near the Dnipro River,” Prokudin said. “This is revenge, and now it is felt more, because our soldiers are already on the left bank of the Kherson region. Civilians in the Kherson region feel this revenge most.”

But, he added, every Kherson resident was an “example of courage.”

As difficult as conditions are, Kherson is still free from Russian occupation – meaning people can “communicate freely, walk freely in our lands,” he said. “Home gives people strength. They are coping because they are at home.”