Ochakiv and the Battle for the Kinburn Spit

Zarina Zabrisky reports from Ochakiv on the Black Sea coast, one of Ukraine’s most dangerous and underreported hotspots after almost a year of full-scale Russian aggression

Located at the mouth of the Dnipro River on the banks of the Dnipro-Buh estuary, Ochakiv can trace its history all the way back to the 5th Century BC and has political, military, economic, and symbolic importance for Putin’s plans to restore the Russian Empire. 

The Russian President referred to Ochakiv in his address to the Russian people just two days before invading Ukraine on 24 February 2022, calling the local training maritime centre a major threat to the Russian Black Sea Fleet and reminding the audience that “in the 18th Century, the lands of the Black Sea region, annexed to Russia as a result of wars with the Ottoman Empire, were called Novorossiya. Now they are trying to oblivion these milestones of history, like the names of state military figures of the Russian Empire.”

The term ‘Novorossiya’ (literally, ‘New Russia’) has been at the heart of Putin’s major ambition: to expand the Russian Federation to the former borders of the Russian Empire. Putin first brought up the term in 2014 after the Russian annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula Crimea. The US Foreign Policy Research Institute recognised that introducing the concept signalled the intention to “dismember” Ukraine. As reality has proved, breathing life into the outdated term was the first stepping stone on Putin’s way to restoring the empire, his own ‘New Russia’.

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Ochakiv: Military Significance

Byline Times’ visit to Ochakiv was almost cancelled. At five am, on April 7 2022, the Russian military fired 72 artillery and mortar shells at the city and 50 shells at the water area around it. They showered the community with Soviet-made multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS) BM-21 Grad (122 mm calibre), cluster munitions launched by MLRS BM-27 Uragan (220 mm calibre), and incendiary projectiles prohibited by international conventions when used against civilians. 

The shelling damaged a big supermarket, high-rises, private houses, garages, a city market, and a gas pipeline. Fires broke out, and two civilians were injured. By the time Byline Times arrived in Ochakiv from Odesa, a major seaport in southern Ukraine, two hours later, the residents were busy repairing the broken windows and smashed doors.  

“We used to have thirteen thousand population before the full-scale invasion. Now, seven thousand civilians left in Ochakiv are used to the shelling,” said Mayor Serhii Bychkov. “It started two days after Putin’s speech and never stopped. That day, the Russians hit what they wanted to hit.”

A  local man told Byline Times: “We had a small mission with a classroom—the one the Russians called a NATO base and destroyed immediately.” Other locals pointed at a destroyed and charred carpet and floor tiles store that the Russian social media claimed to be a storage place for US-made light multiple rocket launchers, HIMARS. 

Commenting on Putin’s allegations that Ochakiv was the location of a decision-making “NATO centre”, Natalia Humeniuk, the head of the United Coordinating Press Center of Security and Defense Forces of the South of Ukraine, told Byline Times, “Putin finds either a NATO base or a biological laboratory in every Ukrainian city.”

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The Kinburn Spit: a Russian Springboard

Imaginary HIMARS garages and NATO decision-making centres are not the real reason for Ochakiv’s strategic importance to the Russian military. Its location, the area’s geography, and its natural resources all make it of paramount importance to the control of the South of Ukraine.

The Ochakiv district, a part of the Mykolaiv region (oblast), includes the Kinburn Spit, a sandy area only 40 kilometres long and fewer than ten kilometres wide. The spit is the extension of the Kinburn peninsula, which belongs to the Kherson oblast. A former tourist attraction, the spit is now off-limits even for a quick visit.

Russians seized the Kinburn Spit in June 2022. From its tip, located only 3.6 km (2.2 miles) away from the cape of Ochakiv——their missiles, artillery, and drones can reach the seaports Mykolaiv and Ochakiv. IAs well as a base for electronic warfare, the Kinburn Spit could serve as a perfect springboard for attacks on these two ports. The peninsula, connected to the currently Russian-occupied left bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region,  could be used in any attempt to recapture Kherson.

The Ukrainian military command understands the importance of the Kinburn Spit and works on preventing such moves.

“We have defeated the Russians at the western part of the Kinburn Spit during the first week of April,” Natalia Humeniuk told Byline Times. “Amphibious landing, crossing the estuary on boats would be too dangerous for our military. We used counter-battery fire instead. As a result, the enemy had to withdraw from the tip of the spit to the peninsula, and the shelling stopped for a couple of days” 

The lull in shelling was short-lived. On 7 April the Russians launched a particularly ferocious bombardment of Ochakiv. To Humeniuk, this was “clearly the reaction to the success of the Ukrainian army”.