It was about creating a land bridge connecting Russia to Crimea and securing Crimea's access to water from the Dnipro river. One of Ukraine's goals with last y

It was about creating a land bridge connecting Russia to Crimea and securing Crimea's access to water from the Dnipro river. One of Ukraine's goals with last year's offensive was to sever the land bridge. That objective failed. Ironically, Russia (likely) blew up the Kakhovka dam to slow down that Ukrainian offensive and thus severely restrained water access to Crimea (which they had fully reestablished in the early days of the war).