‘We Destroyed Two Regiments Of Russians’

A Ukrainian Armed Forces soldier told how Ukraine tried to liberate the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant twice in 2022.

In the summer and autumn of 2022, Ukrainian military personnel landed three times in Energodar and tried to return the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant to Ukrainian control.

The commander of the reconnaissance group of the special forces unit “Artan” of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, call sign “Bob”, told Radio Liberty about this on Friday, February 21.

As the military man informed the publication, they prepared in detail for such a special operation. According to him, at that time an agent network was actively operating in Enerhodar, in particular, local residents provided the Ukrainian military with data on the locations of the occupiers and equipment.

“We had our own department that worked with us at the stage of preparation for this operation. There was a selection of floating craft, because there was a great shortage of floating craft at that time. We can say that we took any floating craft, prepared them and then went out on the water. And, of course, training. Our preparatory stage lasted for a month and a half,” says a fighter with the call sign “Bob.”

The soldier also says that the Defense Forces fighters, preparing for the landing in Enerhodar, planned to prepare a bridgehead, which they would later use for a counteroffensive in the Zaporizhzhya direction. He added that the first attempt to land in Enerhodar failed.

“It was a combination of measures. We can never be 100% sure that everything will go as planned. During the landing, two of our boats were blown up by anti-submarine mines. Because of this, we had to change the point [of setting up a bridgehead], because we began to retreat. The rollback began because some of the floating craft were hit,” says the Ukrainian fighter.

When the occupiers realized that the Ukrainian military was trying to land, they brought in 7-9 thousand personnel.

“We are facing an enemy whose technical intelligence means are better than ours. They are developing them. This is a powerful enemy, and they have significantly more means than we do. It is possible to defeat them only with this approach, when it is all very, very, very well planned,” “Bob” believes.

Then the Ukrainian military began to prepare for the next operations. One of them was carried out in the village of Ivanivka near Enerhodar. He added that if we take the Energodar operation as a whole, then about two regiments of Russians were destroyed during the entire time.

As “Bob” added, the third landing was more of a demonstration. The Russian occupiers realized that the Defense Forces did not abandon their intention to land near the Zaporizhzhya NPP.

“The goal was achieved — in the Zaporizhzhya direction, enemy troops were withdrawn in the direction of Enerhodar,” he noted.

According to “Bob”, the occupiers are taking advantage of the fact that the Zaporizhzhya NPP has prepared shelters, a complex of bunker premises, and other well-fortified objects. He believes that it is now possible to de-occupy the Zaporizhzhya NPP by blocking the occupiers' logistics, rather than by direct assault.

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