Vladimir Putin has been dealt a fresh battlefield blow as Ukraine says it trapped around 2,500 Russian troops on a strategic Black Sea peninsula.
Ukrainian troops said Moscow’s forces on the occupied Kinburn Peninsula had become largely isolated as drone attacks and remotely laid mines made it increasingly difficult to bring in ammunition, fuel and food, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Crimea.Realities project.
The setback comes more than four years into the Russian president’s grinding war in Ukraine, with Moscow still struggling to translate its offensives into major battlefield breakthroughs. Russian troops slightly accelerated their advance in August, but made only “slow and limited” gains, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank.
The Kinburn Spit is a narrow stretch of land between the Black Sea and the Dnipro-Buh estuary.
Russia has controlled the area since 2022, providing Moscow with a position from which to strike Ukraine’s Black Sea coast and the Mykolaiv region with missiles and artillery, according to political risk advisory London Politica. The firm has said Ukrainian control of Kinburn would strengthen Kyiv’s ability to oversee nearby ports and operate its naval forces in the surrounding Black Sea.
A Ukrainian reconnaissance commander using the call sign “Yava” said Russian troops “are screaming in intercepted communications that they cannot organize logistics, that they do not want to go there because it means death.”
“The spit has become a trap for them,” he added.
Russian forces had previously stationed artillery, self-propelled guns and other military equipment directly on the spit, Ukrainian troops told Crimea.Realities. They said repeated Ukrainian attacks had since destroyed most of that firepower.
Ukrainian forces have also sought to disrupt Russian movements across the peninsula by remotely placing mines along roads used to rotate troops and transport supplies. Vehicles including cars, motorcycles and quad bikes carrying Russian personnel and equipment have been targeted.
The development comes as Putin’s troops face another potential battlefield headache in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine has clawed back territory north and east of the city of Lyman, in Ukraine’s occupied Donetsk region, in a months-long counteroffensive, pushing Russian troops back by up to 15 kilometers, according to the Kyiv Post.
Ukrainian forces have driven a roughly 5-by-10-kilometer wedge into Russian positions around the village of Drobysheve and severed an important supply road, threatening to isolate Russian forces in the area.
The Kyiv Post reported that estimates of how many Russian troops could be caught in the nearly surrounded pocket varied widely, from several dozen to several hundred.
German OSINT researcher Andy Schneider said on X on Aug. 25 that the Ukrainian advance had formed “pockets of tactically enclosed units.”
“This is a systematic failure of the Russian defensive lines,” Schneider wrote, adding that Ukraine can now “launch a comprehensive strategic offensive from local successes.”
The fighting comes as Russia continues to absorb substantial losses. Ukraine’s General Staff said Moscow’s forces suffered 42,020 casualties in August, according to ISW, marking the second straight month in which the Ukrainian tally exceeded 40,000. The battlefield figures couldn’t be independently verified.
“Russia’s current force generation system based on volunteer recruitment continues to struggle to recruit enough soldiers to replace current losses, and it remains unclear how long Russian forces will be able to sustain their current footpace offensive tempo at their current loss rate without some form of mobilization,” ISW said.
Putin has dismissed growing rumors about a new round of mobilization as “complete nonsense.”
