Russian Soldiers Sabotage Their Boats to Avoid Storming Dnipro Islands, Partisans Say

Russian soldiers are damaging their boats to avoid storming the islands of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region of Ukraine, reported the Ukrainian partisan movement Atesh on Tuesday, Dec 10. An agent of the Atesh movement, embedded with Russian forces in the Dnipro sector, reported an increase in sabotage cases among Russian soldiers.

The soldiers are deliberately damaging equipment, including breaking motors and puncturing rubber boats, as well as providing the Ukrainian Defense Forces with information about the locations of boat bases and fuel supplies. This is done to avoid taking part in the assault on the islands in the Dnipro Delta.

“It is known that in the 126th separate coastal defense brigade of the Russian Armed Forces three official investigations related to sabotage have been recorded. This has become a real problem for the Russian command,” the Atesh partisans report.

The partisan movement urges other Russian soldiers to follow their example: “Such a simple action as damaging a boat could save you from certain death. These islands are not needed by you, and following orders from your command is a one-way path.”

Last week Kyiv Post reported that Russia is amassing forces and equipment for a potential offensive on Kherson, including assembling 300 boats to cross the Dnipro River, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson Regional State Administration.

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“Russia wants to launch another offensive here,” said Prokudin, adding that Russian forces had assembled “300 boats to cross the river.”

Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Southern Forces of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army, added that Russian forces are attempting to seize river islands to advance across the right (northern) bank of the Dnipro River, toward Kherson. Recently, they launched a significant assault on Kozatsky Island northeast of the city, near Nova Kakhovka.

However, the Kremlin is attempting to use the threat of an offensive in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions as a bargaining tool, similar to their tactics with the use of the “Oreshnik” ballistic missile, to raise the stakes, according to Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council. Kovalenko made the remarks on Friday, Dec. 6, in response Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with American TV commentator Tucker Carlson.

“Putinists are trying to inflate and present the threat to the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions as a condition for negotiation, making it believable to the US. This nonsense was voiced by Lavrov in his interview with Tucker Carlson, while the Russian army conducts mock crossings of the Dnipro River during exercises and prepares for active operations in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions,” Kovalenko posted on his Telegram channel.

In their strategy to raise the stakes, the Russians are attempting to “bargain” with threats: “The same way they did with the Oreshnik [nuclear-capable intermediate-range ballistic missile] case,” Kovalenko added.

The head of Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, Vitaliy Kim, stated on Thursday, Dec 5, that authorities have been aware of a potential Russian assault on the right bank of the Dnipro River for approximately four months. According to him, the military fully understands the situation and is prepared to respond.