Chornobayvka is at the center of the story - so far little told in Italy but which has become famous in Ukraine and in many other countries - of a nightmare into which every Russian soldier who is asked to stand guard or pass by what is the airport falls ( cursed) of the city of Kherson.
What happens in this place where more Russian troops, vehicles and ammunition disappear than planes and crews in the infamous Bermuda Triangle?
Let's look back at what has happened in recent days, through many Ukrainian sources, many local testimonies and even Russian confirmations, to get a more precise idea.
Tuesday July 12: powerful explosions and fires in the airport perimeter.
Monday July 11: over 10 senior officers lost their lives following an attack by the armed forces.
Saturday July 9th: the armed forces of Kiev blow up the Russian ammunition depot. The fire lasted all weekend.
Wednesday July 6th: a missile attack hits an airport fuel depot.
Sunday July 3th: an explosion devastates an ammunition warehouse in the airport area.
If we limit ourselves instead to the first two and a half months of the war, the Russian Federation has lost 75 between soldiers and officers in these few square kilometers, including two generals and dozens of helicopters, thanks above all to drones. Bayraktar of Turkish manufacture heavily used by the Ukrainians in the first part of the war.
We stop here, quoting the words of a biased but effective Ukrainian commentator: "Ukrainian soldiers now don't even have to change coordinates to destroy enemy ammunition, vehicles and fuel". It would seem caustic irony out of place, were it not that yesterday was the twenty-eighth (28!) Attack suffered by Russian aircraft, personnel, ammunition and weapons in the westernmost airport controlled by Russian forces in Ukraine.
Is it to be believed by the politicians of Kiev when they call this place proof of the Kremlin's unpreparedness for this war and of the willingness to have Russian troops massacred to achieve tactical and symbolic objectives? Yes and no.
Of course, there is some truth in the fact that, as a goal, this airport is really too easy: it is located not even ten kilometers from the first line and almost impossible to protect without an air cover that Moscow, up to now, has not been in. able to offer. It must be said that this is a side effect of the occupation of Kherson itself: there are no other airports worthy of the name in this Russian-controlled territory within a radius of over 100 kilometers: the oblast is as extensive as Lazio and Abruzzo put. together but it has the capital located - almost in isolation - in a south-west corner, moreover on the opposite bank - compared to the rest of the region - of the enormous (in width) course of the southern Bug river.
In short, to maintain control of Kherson there are only this cursed airport and two roads - one directed towards Crimea and the other towards Melitopol - which are now themselves very easy targets for Ukrainian rockets.
For the Russians there are only two options left: either to eat the soup of attacks that are served to them almost every day or to jump out of Kherson. Tertium non datur ...
(Apart from driving 100 kilometers, ndd)
Well, actually, yes… It would be enough - or rather "it would have been enough" - to go further, by land, in the direction of Mykolayiv and Odessa. After all, right from the start, Kherson, an oblast and a Ukrainian-speaking city, should only have been the first stop on a triumphal ride through the Russian-speaking South of Ukraine to Odessa. Unfortunately for the Kremlin, Kherson remained the extreme frontier.
Photo: US Army National Guard
