At the beginning of the war, the Armed Forces of Ukraine simply could not successfully defend the south, and the foundations of this painful failure had been laid since 2014.
Military personnel of the Armed Forces have kept a log of landmine inspections on the Crimean Isthmus, and the last inspections took place on 15 February 2022, nine days before the full-scale Russian invasion began.
The State Bureau of Investigations of Ukraine (SBI) is conducting examinations and interrogating the commanders of Ukraine's Armed Forces in a case about the defence of Kherson Oblast in the south of Ukraine in 2022.
At the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there were about 1,500 military personnel to defend the country's south, mostly in Kherson Oblast, while the Russians had up to 20,000 people and a 20-fold advantage in equipment.
The bridges to Crimea in Chonhar have been mined since 2014, but they were not blown up at the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The bridge from Henichesk to Arabat Spit was partially blown up, and the bridges across the Dnipro River in Kherson and Nova Kakhovka were not mined at all.