Kinburn Spit

The Kinburn Spit (Ukrainian: Кінбурнська коса, romanized: Kinbúrnska kosá) is a spit in Mykolaiv Raion, Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine. Its only land access is through Kherson Oblast. It occupies the westernmost part of the Kinburn Peninsula, stretching west into the Black Sea between the Dnieper-Bug estuary to the north and the Yahorlyk Bay to the south. It is approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) long, with a width of about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) at its base, narrowing to about 100 metres (330 ft) in its western half. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the spit was captured by Russian forces on 10 June 2022. Russia fortified the spit and used it as a site to deploy electronic warfare and coordinate missile and artillery attacks on nearby Ukrainian positions. Since Ukraine's 2022 Kherson counteroffensive that ended in November 2022, regained territory north of the spit has allowed Ukrainian forces to more frequently conduct amphibious operations against the spit as reconnaissance for its potential recapture.

History During the 2nd millennium BCE, rising sea levels submerged plains in the lower Dnipro, leaving the Dnipro-Buh estuary, including Kinburn, as wooded land. There were some itinerant metalworkers in the Northern Black Sea region during the Late Bronze Age, and some came over for the local resources like calcium sands and hematite sands. During the archaic period, sometime in the 7th-4th century BC, the Yahorlyk craft settlement was founded as a temporary seasonal market on the spit. It produced a wide range of copper and bronze objects, and most were workers from the Middle Dnipro, Balkans, North Caucasus, Cisurals, and Western Siberia. However, the settlement went into decline with the founding of Olbia. It was mentioned by the Greek historian Herodotus in the 5th century BC. Later, Greek colonizers came, where they left the ruins of an ancient Greek ship dating to the third quarter of the fifth century (which was meant to carry a cargo of olive oil and wine) and an altar in honor of Achilles. The Battle of Kinburn was fought on 12 October (N.S.)/1 October (O.S.) 1787 as part of the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792). The Battle of Kinburn was fought on 17 October 1855 as part of the Crimean War.

Until the mid-19th century, an Ottoman fort was located on Kinburn Spit, which was taken over by Russians at the end of the 18th century. It was dismantled following the 1853-1856 Crimean War under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1856). During the control of the Soviet Union from 1922-1991, the entire Kinburn Peninsula had a population of more than 1,000 in the three villages located there, and was known for its strawberry growing and harvesting. The harvested crop would often be flown to Odesa for wider distribution in farmers' markets. Approximately after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the population in all three villages dropped, and as of 2022 stood at around 150 combined; the majority of the strawberry growing and harvesting stopped. This has led to Kinburn becoming a Natural Park in Ukraine, preserving the remaining ecosystem and wildlife, specifically the unique pink pelicans which live there. The majority of the revenue from the spit before the invasion came from campers, hikers, and stargazers visiting the National Park.

2022 Russian invasion

The Kinburn Spit was not occupied by Russian forces at the beginning of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Four months later, on 10 June, Russian forces took the spit. The capture of the spit was one of the last significant Russian military victories on the southern Ukrainian front in 2022. During the occupation, Russian forces deployed electronic warfare systems and coordinated shelling of the right bank of the Dnieper and southern Ukraine. The spit was also used as a launch site for missile and artillery attacks on Ukrainian-controlled positions in Ochakiv, southern Mykolaiv Oblast, and the Black Sea coast. The spit housed at least one ammunition depot and potentially a combat drone control and training center. The spit was believed to be well-fortified by Russia with square concrete bunkers. The war has not only had a disruptive and destructive impact on the residents who lived on the Kinburn Spit, but to the unique plants and wildlife such as the Centaurea breviceps and Centaurea Paczoskii cornflower species, and their sensitive ecosystem. Bombs, and the pollutants that came from them, killed nearby dolphins, and opened the sand and soil to the threat of chemicals seeping in and invasive species, according to the research and policy director at the UK-based Conflict and Environment Observatory Doug Weir. In May 2022 a 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) fire, started by rockets, inflicted lasting habitat damage to the perennial forests and salt marshes of the spit. Ukraine conducted the first recorded reconnaissance attempts on the spit beginning in September 2022 on the advice of the United Kingdom. Assaults and strikes continued throughout September and into October.

Dnieper campaign (2022–present)

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