The story we are about to tell shows the tactical intelligence (even without American help), the spirit of adaptation and survival of the Ukrainian people, who were attacked by Putin’s army in a foolish monster more than two months ago. In the village of Demydiv, some thirty kilometers north of the capital Kyiv, residents are struggling with the aftermath of a flood and flooding not caused by the weather or by the overflowing of a river, lake or dam. No, they created the swamp to prevent the Russians from advancing into Kyiv. A tactical victory in every respect.
So they stopped Moscow
The story made the front page of the New York Times. The residents of the small village have flooded intentionally everything around them, from fields to roads, to lose entire crops and certainly cause serious damage to crops. We are at war, life is one and “the plants will then sow again”, they must have thought correctly. In this way, as already mentioned, they created a kind of quicksand, a veritable swamp capable of repelling the attack of Russian tanks on Kyiv and bought the army time to prepare defense. The residents of Demydiv have paid the highest price: the water has also reached their homes, the inconveniences have been enormous, they are working day and night to try to restore the situation, but they could not be happier.
“No one regretted it”
“Everyone understands it and no one regrets it, not even for a moment,” says Antonina Kostuchenko, a retiree whose living room is now a moldy room with a waterline three feet above the floor. It doesn’t matter: “We have Rescued Kyiv!” he exclaimed happily. What happened in Demydiv is not an absolute novelty: since the first days of the war, Ukraine has quickly and effectively devastated its territory, often destroying infrastructure in the process in order to thwart the attack of the Russian army, which possessed (possessed) superior numbers and weapons has. When Demydiv was deliberately flooded with the opening of a nearby dam, in other Ukrainian areas the military blew up bridges, bombed roads and shut down railway lines and airports without hesitation, aiming to slow down the Russian advance, trapping enemy troops to steer and force the tank columns into less favorable terrain.
The scorched earth policy.
As the American daily recalls, according to Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, the Kiev army has so far destroyed more than 300 bridges across the country. When the Russians attempted to take over a key airport near Kyiv on the first day of the invasion, Ukrainian forces bombed the runway, leaving huge craters and preventing planes laden with Russian supplies from landing. The policy of “scorched earth“He played a very important role in Ukraine’s success, keeping Russian forces in check in the north and ‘preventing them from capturing the capital, Kyiv,’ some military experts have said.” Ukrainians are clearly very creative in trying to making the very difficult life for the Russians,” said Rob Lee, a researcher at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. A common approach around Kyiv and in the final days of the fighting for eastern Ukraine was to force the Russians to a river of boats to cross destroyed bridges: in this way it was easier to ambush with Ukrainian artillery squads ready to open fire on the enemy.
Damage to Ukrainian infrastructure
However, there is also a downside: Between internal and Russian bombing, the country’s infrastructure is reduced to a minimum: the estimated total damage for roads, bridges and various storage sites alone is 85 billion dollars. Not only that, but the small village of Demydiv has not yet recovered: in some areas the floods are resisting, the corn fields are now deserted and to return to their homes people are still walking on mud flats. But here, too, common ground, solidarity and a spirit of adjustment prevailed. “Fifty flooded houses is not a great loss,” said Volodymyr Artemchuk, a volunteer who helped power the pumps that drain the village.
The Precious Floods
These floods forced the Russians to withdraw in March. The water created an effective anti-tank barrier, directing attack forces into ambushes and cramped urban environments in a number of outlying towns such as Hostomel, Bucha and Irpin. The huge flood has then limited also possible crossing points on a tributary of the Dnipro, the river Irpin. Finally, Russian forces again tried unsuccessfully to cross this river half a dozen times via a pontoon bridge and wade through a swampy area, all in awkward locations and under Ukrainian artillery fire. “The Flood,” as locals often ironically call it, protected Kie, but also helped protect Demydiv, which was on the Russian-held side of the flooded fields. Although Russian soldiers patrolled the village, he was never on the front lines of the battle.
“It was worth it,” said Roman Bykhovchenko, 60, a security guard while wiping soaked shoes in his garden. Otherwise it’s worth it: a small village has stopped Putin’s “Great Russian Army”. And we will certainly soon be reading about this village in the history books.