Ukraine throws a Dnipro Dare at Putin’s Army

Here’s why Ukraine might not require a bridgehead

Shankar Narayan
7 min readOct 19, 2023

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A fishing expedition. For now.. (Licensed Image)

Yesterday evening, there was a notable surge in discussions within the Russian military blogging community. Many of them expressed significant concern about the potential consequences of Ukrainian forces crossing the Dnipro River, near the damaged Antonovsky bridge, and breaching Russian defenses in the vicinity.

Pishchanivka Zoomed in on the left image and zoomed out on the right. Screenshots from Deepstatelive. I added the red sketch

I’m pretty sure those two Western publications will briefly touch upon this development and downplay its significance. They’ll likely convey the idea that Ukraine crossing the river and engaging Russian defenses in Pishchanivka, just 3 kilometers away, and Poyma, which is 4 kilometers from the Dnipro River, isn’t really a major deal.

I agree with them, when you consider these events in isolation, it’s anything but insignificant.

Ukraine has been persistently trying to establish a bridgehead, or at the very least maintain a presence of some sort on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River for an extended period. There was an attempt in April, July, August and many more.

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Shankar Narayan

He didn't care what he had or what he had left, he cared only about what he must do.