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Ukraine Marines recount deadly mission to free towns east of Dnieper River
(www.washingtonpost.com)
This is the best summary I could come up with:
KHERSON, Ukraine — On the morning of his first crossing of the Dnieper River — where his unit was being sent in a desperate effort to claw back occupied land from Russia — the 21-year-old Ukrainian marine woke up “ready to die.”
Ukraine does not publicly disclose its number of military casualties and has declined to specify how many marines have been killed in the mission, which seized back just a few square kilometers of land, including a toehold in the fishing village of Krynky.
The front lines here had barely budged since the liberation of Kherson city, the regional capital, from Russian occupation in November 2022, complicated by mucky terrain and bombed-out bridges.
As Dmytro left for the crossing, he carried three tins of sardines and six loaves of bread, plus 100 pounds of ammunition and other gear, for an operation that was expected to last a few days — if he survived that long.
On the Ukraine Control map — which pins the location of video-recorded missile strikes — the river is clotted with dots corroborating accounts of heavy fire.
They survived the night, fighting toward Krynky, where Ukrainian forces have established a toehold in the ruins of homes, with Russian soldiers nearby ready to seize back the land.
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