The waters pouring into Demydiv were one of many cases where Ukraine ravaged its own territory to slow Russia’s advance. Residents couldn’t be happier. “We saved Kyiv,” said one.
DEMYDIV, Ukraine – They pulled up soggy linoleum from the floor, and fish potatoes and jars of pickles from flooded cellars. They dry waterlogged carpets to dry in the light spring sun.
Around Demydiv, a village north of Kyiv, residents are grappling with the aftermath of a severe flood, which in normal circumstances could be another misfortune for those hit. This time, it’s the complete opposite.
In fact, it was a tactical victory in the war against Russia. The Ukrainians intentionally overran the village, along with a large area and the marshes surrounding it, creating a quagmire that hindered the Russian tank attack on Kyiv and gave the army valuable time to prepare. defended.
The inhabitants of Demydiv had to pay the price with rivers flooded with azure floodwaters that engulfed many of their homes. And they couldn’t be more pleased.
Antonina Kostuchenko, a retired person, said: “Everybody understands and no one regrets it for a moment.
“We saved Kyiv!” she said proudly.
What happened in Demydiv was no exception. Since the early days of the war, Ukraine has been quick and efficient in ravaging its territory, often by destroying infrastructure, as a way to defeat a Russian army with superior numbers and weapons.
Demydiv was flooded when the army opened a dam nearby and flooded the countryside. Elsewhere in Ukraine, the army without hesitation blew up bridges, bombed roads and disabled railways and airports. The goal was to slow the Russian advances, trap the enemy, and drive the tank force into less favorable terrain.
So far, more than 300 bridges have been destroyed across Ukraine, the country’s Infrastructure Minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, said. When the Russians tried to capture an important airport outside of Kyiv on the first day of the invasionUkrainian forces shelled the runway, making them criss-crossed by craters and unable to receive Russian special forces aircraft.
Military experts say the policy of grounding played a key role in Ukraine’s success in keeping Russian forces in the north and preventing them from capturing the capital, Kyiv.
“Ukrainians are clearly very creative in trying to make life difficult for Russians,” said Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Institute for Foreign Policy Studies. “Should slow down any fast attacks.”
An approach, used frequently last month and in recent days in Kyiv intense fighting in eastern Ukraine, was to force the Russians to attempt to cross the river in buoys around the destroyed bridges. These sites were carefully planned in advance by Ukrainian artillery teams, making the construction of pontoon bridges an expensive and bloody undertaking for the Russians.
But the variations abound. Ukraine’s military has released a video of a bridge blowing up as an armored vehicle rammed across, sending it plummeting into a river.
To the east of Kyiv, bridges were blown up in a way that forced a fleet of Russian tanks into a peat bog; four tanks sunk close to their turrets.
“It’s one of the strong points, everyone recognizes it,” Mr. Kubrakov said.
“Our army, our army made a very rational use of the technical items, whether dams or bridges, which blew up and halted the advance of the forces,” he said. speak. “It was done everywhere in the early days, and it is happening now in the Donbas” in eastern Ukraine.
This strategy comes at a huge cost to the country’s civilian infrastructure. The Russian military also blew up bridges and targeted railway stations, airports, fuel depots and other facilities, adding to Ukraine’s self-inflicted damage and adding value to reconstruction. country after the war.
The total estimated damage to transport infrastructure after two months of war is about $85 billion, the Ukrainian government said. Regardless of which side actually destroyed any particular site, Mr. Kubrakov blamed Russia.
“We would not have blown up our own bridges until the war had started,” Mr. Kubrakov said. “The cause is one and the same: the aggression of the Russian Federation.”
The experience in Demydiv is a case in point. Ukrainian forces overran the area on February 25, the second day of the war.
The move was particularly effective, according to Ukrainian officials and soldiers, creating a large, shallow lake in front of Russian armored columns. Subsequently, Russian shelling damaged the dam, further complicating drainage efforts in the area.
Even two months later, the inhabitants of Demydiv row a rubber boat. Abandoned corn stocks emerge from flooded gardens. A family walks down a rickety boardwalk on a sticky black mud in the yard.
Russo-Ukrainian War: Main developments
However, a dozen or more residents have said in interviews that the strategic benefits outweigh their disadvantages.
“Fifty houses flooded is not a big loss,” said Volodymyr Artemchuk, a volunteer who is helping fuel the drainage pumps in the village.
The flood that sealed off Kyiv’s northern perimeter on the West bank of the Dnipro River played a key role in the fighting in March, when Ukrainian forces repelled Russian efforts to encircle Kyiv and ultimately leave the Russians alone. have to withdraw. This sea created an effective barrier to tanks and maneuvered assault forces into ambushes and cramped urban settings in a string of outlying towns – Hostomel, Bucha and Irpin.
Flooding also limits potential crossings over a tributary of the Dnipro River, the Irpin River. In the end, Russian forces tried to cross that river half a dozen times without success, using pontoon bridges and driving across a marshy area, all in unfavorable positions and under Ukrainian artillery fire.
They were constantly shelled, according to a Ukrainian soldier named Denys, who witnessed a failed border crossing that left burning Russian tanks scattered across the riverbank. The soldier gave his name only for security reasons.
The flood protected Kyiv but also helped protect Demydiv, which is located in a flooded field occupied by Russia. Although Russian soldiers patrolled the village, the village never became the front line in battle, and was freed from the grim fate of towns to the south.
Oleksandr Melnichenko, who holds the same post as mayor, said six people had been shot during the roughly a month of occupation, and homes and shops had been destroyed by shelling. But the village escaped the horror when dozens of bodies were left on the streets as the Russian troops retreated, as happened in Bucha’s forerunner town.
“Some people are trying to get back to normal life and some people are still traumatized,” Mr. Melnichenko said. “People are afraid it will happen again.”
Although some complained about the slow cleanup, which is expected to take weeks or months, the majority of the villagers have rallied together in a joyful joint effort to dry their homes.
Even as floodwaters flooded backyards and soda bottles washed over houses, the women were cellaring and inviting people in to eat, and the neighbors were pouring diesel fuel into the pumps on a van. rubber boat.
Roman Bykhovchenko, 60, a security guard, is drying his soggy shoes on a table in his yard. When he stepped into the kitchen, water bubbled up through the cracks in the floorboards. However, he said of the damage, “It is worth it.”
Ms. Kostuchenko, who is retired, apologized for the piles of towels strewn on the floor when she showed her house damaged. “I apologize for it being so messy,” she said.
She sighed, lamenting that her garden was now a shallow pond that might not be planted this year. But then she joked that maybe she would try growing rice.
Nikita Simonchuk and Maria Varennikova contribution report from Demydiv.
