A glide bomb under the wing of a Sukhoi Su-34.
Russian Air Force photo
On October 19, Ukrainian marines crossed the Dnipro River in Kherson Oblast, southern Ukraine. Landing near Krynky, a three-mile-wide settlement on the Russian-controlled left bank of the Dnipro, the Marines launched a series of infantry actions that over the next few weeks would result in Russian troops withdrawing from Krynky and the Ukrainian forces dug in.
A year after a rapid Ukrainian counteroffensive liberated the northern Kherson Oblast and drove the Russians across the Dnipro, a much more cautious Ukrainian counteroffensive, supported by a heroic electronic warfare campaign, is pushing the Russians from across the river.
To organize a mechanized counterattack that could theoretically force the Ukrainian Marine Corps back across the Dnipro, Russian forces are resorting to massive air firepower. The Russian Air Force bombs both sides of the Dnipro with long-range precision glide bombs.
If they fail to drive the Ukrainians out of their Krynky bridgehead, the Russians could try to blow up the bridgehead. Ukrainian troops fear the Universal Gliding and Correction Module’s powerful bombs more than most Russian weapons.
Now those bombs – potentially many of them – are hitting a tiny part of a settlement where the frontline and most exposed Ukrainian forces are sheltering.
Three weeks after the Ukrainian Marines landed in Krynky, the Russians on the left bank of the Dnipro knew they had a problem. “A bridgehead was established in an area that was very poorly covered by very weak troops on our side,” wrote a Russian soldier.
“A bridgehead was created with the task of moving there and destroying as many of our combat-ready units as possible from other areas – for example, from the vicinity of Robotyne,” they added.
Ukrainian army and airstrike forces liberated Robotyne in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, east of Kherson, this summer.
When these so-called “fire brigade” troops – regiments and brigades that the Kremlin is rapidly moving from one sector to another to bolster a faltering defense effort – arrive on the left bank of the Dnipro, the Ukrainians tend to attack in the sector the firefighters have just left. This exploited a new weakness in the Russian lines.
“The enemy will find a weak point that will lead to quick successes with minimal losses, which can be converted into the attraction and dissolution of our last reserves,” the soldier complained.
To break this unfortunate cycle of hectic and self-destructive troop deployments, the Kremlin intensified its airstrikes on Ukrainian positions in Kherson in late October. Sukhoi Su-34 fighter-bombers and other fighter jets, some apparently flying from occupied Crimea, have dropped satellite-guided, winged glide bombs from distances of up to 25 miles.
Weighing between 1,100 and 3,300 pounds, glide bombs are simple tools with many handcrafted components. But they work. Glide bombs are “one of the biggest fears” of Ukrainian troops, accordingly Ukrainian soldier Olexandr Solon’ko.
“The Russians use them extensively,” Solon’ko wrote. “I can’t say anything about their accuracy, but the weaponry is powerful.”
According to Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, as many as 87 glide bombs hit populated areas in Kherson Oblast on November 5. It was “the largest number of glide bombs fired by Russian forces to date since Russia’s major invasion of Ukraine,” concluded the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, DC
“There are most likely no undamaged residential buildings left in Krynky,” the independent Conflict Intelligence Team found.
While Ukrainian drone operators control the air directly over Krynky, largely thanks to intensive electronic warfare efforts by Ukrainian electronic warfare forces to block Russia’s own drones, this local control does not extend beyond southern Kherson. Apparently Russian pilots have no problem getting within 25 miles of the Dnipro to drop their glide bombs.
The Ukrainian Air Force protects northern Kherson with S-300 surface-to-air missile batteries. We know this because the Russians recently knocked out at least one Ukrainian S-300 launcher in the oblast.
But the S-300s, with a range of 75 miles, are apparently not close enough to Krynky or close enough in their cover to protect the Dnipro beachhead. It is not for nothing that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week promised reinforcements the air defense in the area.
These additional defenses could mean the difference between victory and defeat for the Ukrainian Marines clinging to their beachhead in Krynky.
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