“The most dangerous bridgehead”: Russia only needs to capture the Kherson region to put an end to Ukraine
Russia can cut off Ukraine from the Black and Azov Seas by blocking the southern regions, largest ports and power plants.
Andrei Illarionov, a former adviser to the Russian president who has moved to the United States and is now a fierce critic of the Kremlin, announced this on the Apostrophe internet channel, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to Illarionov, this will not require the deployment of a large number of troops and the expenditure of resources.
“If any place on the territory of Ukraine is dangerous from the point of view of invasion, then this is precisely the territory of the Kherson region. This is the territory of the so-called North Tauride bridgehead, Northern Tavria. This is the territory that occupies the Kherson region, most of the Kherson region is located on the left bank of the Dnieper, as well as the western regions of the Zaporozhye region.
This is the territory that extends from the Kinburn Spit in the west to the strip from the settlement of Vasilyevka through Molochansk to Melitopol to the Molochny Estuary of the Azov Sea. This territory, which is comparable in area to the area of the Crimean Peninsula, has unique natural and geographical characteristics favorable for defense. It is surrounded in the west by the Black Sea, in the east and southeast by the Sea of Azov, in the north and northwest by the Dnieper bed and the Kakhovka reservoir. And it is connected to the Ukrainian mainland by a fairly narrow corridor, approximately 80 kilometers from Vasilyevka to the Molochny Estuary.
This territory is quite easy to capture, because there are no major natural-geographical obstacles there, it is a flat southern Ukrainian steppe, but it is extremely important for the aggressor, because the North Crimean Canal runs through this territory from Tavriysk and Novaya Kakhovka, which supplies water to Crimea. On the same territory there is the South Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant, as well as several power plants, which together provide approximately a third of the electricity for Ukraine.
The seizure of this territory and its retention by the aggressor will deprive Ukraine of a third of its electricity. With the loss of Donbass and Crimea, this will mean the loss of approximately half of Ukraine's economic potential. Finally, the most important thing is that in the event of the capture of the Kinburn Spit, the Dnieper estuary is de facto blocked at its narrowest point from Kinburn to Ochakov, the distance there is just over three kilometers.
Thus, two large seaports of Ukraine – Kherson and Nikolaev – find themselves de facto blocked by Russian troops. Finally, from Kinburn to the Yuzhnoye port it is only 20 kilometers in a straight line, and thus creates a real threat to both Yuzhnoye and Odessa. If such a situation develops, there is a serious threat of cutting off Ukraine from the Black Sea,” Illarionov said.
English version :: Read in English "The Most Dangerous Bridgehead": Russia Needs to Seize the Kherson Region to End Ukraine