They flooded their own village and detained the Russians

DEMYDIV, Ukraine – They scrape wet linoleum off their floors and fish potatoes and pickle jars from submerged basements.

They hung wet rags to dry on the pale spring sun.

Around Demydiv, a town north of kyiv, Ukraine, residents are dealing with the result of severe flooding that, under normal circumstances, is another misfortune for a town under attack.

In this case, it is the opposite.

In fact, it is a tactical success in the war against Russia.

The Ukrainians deliberately flooded the village, along with a large expanse of fields and swamps around it, creating a quicksand prevented the Russian tank attack in kyiv and gave the army a precious time to prepare defenses.

Demydiv residents paid the price for the wet, green rivers that flooded many of their homes. And they couldn’t be happier.

“Everyone understands and no one regrets for a moment,” said Antonina Kostuchenko, a retiree, whose living room is now a fuzzy space with 12-inch or longer water lines on the walls.

“We saved kyiv!” he said proudly.

What happened to Demydiv was not an outlier.

From the early days of the war, Ukraine has been quick and effective at creating havoc on its own territory, often destruction of infrastructureas a way to thwart a Russian army with superior numbers and weapons.

Demydiv was flooded with troops they opened a nearby dam and they sent water into the field.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, there is no doubt that the military has blown up bridges, bombed roads, and disabled train lines and airports.

The goal was to slow Russia’s advance, funnel enemy troops into traps, and force tank columns into the land. less desirable.

So far, they have destroyed more than 300 bridges in Ukraine, said the country’s infrastructure minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov.

When the Russians tried to seize a major airport outside kyiv on the first day of the invasion, Ukrainian forces bombed the runway, leaving it cratered and unable to receive planes loaded with Russian special forces.

the policy of fire ground it played a major role in Ukraine’s success in deterring Russian forces in the north and preventing them from occupying the capital kyiv, military experts said.

“Ukrainians are clearly very creative in trying to make life very difficult for Russians,” said Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

“It makes sense to stop any quick offense.”

One strategy, often used in kyiv last month and in recent days in intense fighting in eastern Ukraine, is to force the Russians to try to cross the river around the destroyed bridges.

Ukrainian artillery carefully planned such sites in advance, making the pontoon bridge bloody and costly tasks for the Russians.

But there are many variations.

The Ukrainian military has released video of a bridge exploding as an armored vehicle is crossing, sending the vehicle crashing into the river.

To the east of kyiv, bridges were blown up in such a way that a Russian tank squadron was forced to enter. a peat bog; four tanks sank almost to their turrets.

“It’s become one of the strong sides. The whole world has noticed it,” Kubrakov said.

“Our army, our armed forces are very good at using engineering elements, whether it be dams or bridges, they blow them up and stop the advance of the forces,” he said.

“It was done everywhere in the early days, and now it’s happening in the Donbas” in eastern Ukraine.

The approach is there huge cost for the country’s civil infrastructure.

The Russian military is also blowing up bridges and targeting train stations, airports, fuel depots and other facilities, adding to self -harm of Ukraine and increases the price of rebuilding the country after the war.

The estimated total damage to transportation infrastructure after two months of the war is rough $ 85 billionsays the Ukrainian government.

Regardless of which side actually destroyed any particular site, Kubrakov blamed Russia.

“We wouldn’t have blown up our own bridges if the war hadn’t already started,” Kubrakov said.

“The reason is one and the same: aggression of the Russian Federation.”

The Demydiv experience is a good example.

Ukrainian forces flooded the area on February 25, second day of war.

The measure was particularly effective, Ukrainian officials and soldiers said, creating a wide, shallow lake in front of Russia’s armored columns.

Later, Russian bombing damaged the dam, now complicating efforts to do so. to exhaust the place.

Even two months later, Demydiv residents are paddling a rubber boat.

Abandoned corn stocks emerged from flooded gardens.

One family walked down a rickety boardwalk over the sticky black mud in their yard.

But a dozen residents said in interviews that the the strategic benefit outweighs its difficulties.

“The fifty houses that were flooded were not a big loss,” said Volodymyr Artemchuk, a volunteer who helps enable the bombs that are now drying up in the village.

The flooding that blocked the northern edge of kyiv on the west bank of the Dnipro River played a critical role in the fighting in March as Ukrainian forces rejected Russian attempts to surround kyiv and eventually forced the Russians to umatras.

The waters create a effective barrier for tanks and poured attack force into ambushes and crowded urban settings in a series of remote towns:

Hostomel, Bucha and Irpin.

Flooding also limited possible crossings on a Dnipro tributary, the Irpin River.

Ultimately, Russian forces unsuccessfully tried half a dozen times to cross that river, using a pontoon bridge and driving through a swampy area, all in undesirable places and under fire from Ukrainian artillery.

They were repeatedly hit by bullets, according to a Ukrainian soldier named Denys who witnessed the wrong crossing that left burnt Russian tanks strewn along the riverbank.

The soldier only gave his name for security.

The flood protected kyiv but also helped protect Demydiv, which is in the part occupied by Russia by flooded sands.

Although Russian soldiers patrolled the town, it did not become the front line in the battle and survived the sad fate of the southern towns.

Six people were shot during about a month of the occupation, said Oleksandr Melnichenko, who holds a position similar to that of mayor, and houses and shops were destroyed as a result of the attack.

But the town escaped frightening scenes of dozens of corpses left in the streets by retreating Russian soldiers, as happened in the frontline town of Bucha.

“Some people are trying to get back to normal life and others are still traumatizedyes, ”Melnichenko said.

“People are afraid it will happen again.”

Although some people complained about the slow speed of the cleanup, which is expected to take weeks or months, most of the town has come together in a communal effort. almost cheerful to dry their houses.

Even as floodwaters flooded backyards and soda bottles were floating in houses, women were cooking borscht and feeding people, and neighbors hauled diesel fuel for the bombs. on a rubber boat.

Roman Bykhovchenko, 60, a security guard, was drying wet shoes on a table in his garden.

As he entered his kitchen, water was gushing through cracks in the floor. However, he said of the damage, “it’s worth it.”

Kostuchenko, the retiree, apologized for the piles of towels scattered on the floor as he showed the damage to his home.

“I’m sorry for the mess,” he said.

He sighed, lamenting that his garden, now a shallow lake, was unlikely to be planted this year.

But then he joked that he might try to plant rice.

Nikita Simonchuk and Maria Varenikova contributed reporting from Demydiv, Ukraine.

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