After the investigation by Slidstvo.Info about the operation of the Defense Forces in the village of Krynky, on the east bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson Oblast, the brother of one of the Ukrainian servicewomen wrote to us: “Why do you write only about the men who went missing in Krynky? My sister was there too”. Oksana Pyatak, a 32-year-old marine with the call sign “Otaman,” also fought on the east bank of the Dnipro. Here is her story.
“SHE WANTED TO BE A RIFLEWOMAN, BUT WAS DOING PAPERWORK”
The nine months of fighting on the east bank of the Dnipro River were a challenge for the Ukrainian military. From the complex logistics of ferrying troops, ammunition, food and medicine by boats, which were constantly under fire, to the fact that the Russians were waiting for Ukrainians on three sides, and there was water behind them. However, Russian equipment was constantly being destroyed there, and Russian “milbloggers” wrote for months about how Russians were being killed in platoons and companies.
The landing operation on the east bank began in October 2023, but in the winter it became difficult to fight because the Russians were bringing in more and more people and armored vehicles, and the Ukrainians on the other side had no armor at all.
By spring, nothing was left of Krynky. But the Ukrainian Armed Forces continued to hold their positions there.
In March, Oksana, an assaulter, came to Krynky on a rotation. She served in an air assault company of the 35th Marine Brigade.
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- Oksana “Otaman” Pyatak / photo provided by the family
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- Oksana “Otaman” Pyatak / photo provided by the family
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- Oksana “Otaman” Pyatak / photo provided by the family
“When the full-scale invasion began, my sister volunteered to join our local Poltava territorial defense unit. She was assigned to do some paperwork. She wanted to be a riflewoman. Before the New Year, we found out that she had been transferred to the Marines, but she did not tell us that she was there,” says Oksana’s brother Ivan, also a soldier. The servicewoman did not tell her family anything else, only that everything was fine.
“I TRIED TO CONVINCE HER NOT TO GO, OFFERED HER ANOTHER POSITION. BUT SHE REFUSED”
“I saw a woman at the positions only once, and it was a woman from Norway, who was in Krynky. But she was [further away from the frontline], as a medic. I saw only one, surely she would not be storming…,” says Yaroslav, a 22-year-old marine with another air assault company of the same 35th Marine Brigade. He spent almost all of December 2023 in Krynky.
However, in the neighboring battalion, in an identical airborne assault company, Oksana was actively participating in assaults. March 2024 was not the first time she went to Krynky.
“I tried to convince her not to go, and offered her another position to fly FPV drones. But she refused, saying she didn’t have the brains to be a pilot and that she would be better off as an infantrywoman. In fact, she deceived me, Oksana just wanted to go there,” says Oleksandr, one of the commanders who worked closely with Oksana.
“I asked her what you would do if you were captured, and she told me: I would fight to the end or shoot myself. She is such a fighter that I didn’t need to ask her about her motivation, I had bad feelings, but her motivation was to go all the way,” Oleksandr says.
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On March 7, 2024, a decree on awarding service members was published on the website of the President’s Office. Oksana’s name is on the long list. She, a sailor, was awarded the medal “For Military Service to Ukraine”. Oksana was already in Krynky at the time.
“We wanted her to be the first to get out of there. She was told to go to the evacuation point. She refused and said she would be the last to leave,” says Oleksandr.
“There was no situation where she turned back,” the military commander adds.
“SHE SAID: ‘WE HAVE BEEN MET’. AND THEN I HEARD A FIREFIGHT ON THE RADIO.”
On May 18, Oksana celebrated her birthday. She turned 32 years old.
On May 19, her family received an official notification that Oksana had gone missing in Krynky.
“We had no contact with her since March, I called the brigade’s hotline, and they told me everything was fine, she was performing her assignment,” says her brother Ivan.
Ivan later learned from other soldiers that when leaving Krynky, his sister took a wrong turn and entered a house where Russians were present.
“The four of them were holding a position. It was no longer worth holding it. We tried to get them out of there. But since it was Krynky, it was not so easy. We had to drop an inflatable boat with a Baba Yaga (a type of drone – ed.) and told them which point they had to reach to get into the boat and get out. During this time, while we were organizing this evacuation, the place where they were hiding was hit three times, and their basement collapsed slightly. Because of this, we had two moments when the connection with them was cut off…” says soldier Oleksandr.
When the connection was restored, the four marines, including Oksana, began to move to the place where the boat was waiting for them to be evacuated. They walked in complete darkness and were told where to go by radio. And then the connection was cut off again…
“They turned left when they should have turned right. Her last words on the radio were: ‘We have been met’, and then I just heard a firefight on the radio,” Oleksandr recalls.
The soldiers on the west bank did not know what happened next. After a while, they heard in the radio intercepts of the Russians that “we have three Ukrainians, including a woman.” But why three and not four? There were four soldiers. Some time later, the soldiers also found the fourth one, and he was the first to be shot when they entered the house where the Russians were hiding.
“OTAMAN?” SHE COULD LEAD ANY GIG AND REV UP THE GUYS, EVEN IF THEY WERE AFRAID
When asked by Slidstvo.info why Oksana had the call sign “Otaman,” Oleksandr answers: “Because she could ‘rev up’ (motivate – ed.) everyone to do something to such an extent that we could not calm them down later. And she could hearten them even if they were very afraid, so ‘Otaman’ is our soldier Jane. I’m a sexist myself, but she was such a fighter that she could give any guy a run for his money. We have lost a worthy warrior.”
Earlier, Slidstvo.Info established that 265 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the battle for Krynky between October 2023 and June 2024, and another 788 went missing.
The video has English subtitles.
