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Ukrainian missiles hit one of the few bridges linking Crimea to the Ukrainian mainland early Thursday, cutting off one of the main supply routes for Russian occupation forces in southern Ukraine as Kiev presses to expel them.
Vladimir Saldo, the head of the administration Russia has installed in occupied parts of Ukraine’s Kherson province, posted a video of himself on the Chunhar Road embankment, with potholes blasted through the asphalt.
“Another senseless act committed by the Kiev regime on orders from London. It solves nothing in terms of the special military operation,” he said, vowing to repair the bridge and restore traffic.
He threatened retaliation by targeting a bridge linking neighboring Moldova with NATO member Romania: “A very serious response will come very soon.”
The bridge is one of the few ways to get to the Crimea. (Reuters)
The Chonhar Bridge that crashed during the night is one of the few routes into Crimea, which is connected to the Ukrainian mainland by a narrow isthmus.
Alternate routes require hour-long detours on roads in poor condition. The new RIA news agency quoted transport officials installed by the Russians in Crimea as saying it could take weeks to fix.
The bridge is located outside the missile range of the main battlefield in Kiev. (Reuters)
The bridge is out of range of the battlefield missiles Ukraine used a year ago, but within reach of newly deployed weapons such as British and French cruise missiles, allowing Kiev to strike logistical routes that Russia deemed safe only weeks ago.
“psychological effect”
Yuri Sobolevsky, a Ukrainian official in the governing body of the Kherson region, said that the strike was “a blow to the military logistics of the occupiers”.
The psychological impact on the occupiers and the occupying state is more significant. There is no place in the Kherson region where they could feel safe.
RIA news agency reported that Russian investigators said that Ukrainian forces fired four missiles at the bridge. It quoted a spokesman for military investigators as saying that marks found on the remains of one of the missiles indicated that it was made in France.
Ukraine is attacking Russia’s supply lines to disrupt Moscow’s defense of occupied territories to the south, where Kiev is in the early stages of its most ambitious counter-offensive of the war.
Kiev says it has recaptured eight villages so far, but it has not yet committed the bulk of its forces to combat and its advanced forces have not yet reached the main Russian defense lines.
In its latest update on the fighting, the Ukrainian military reported “partial success” in the southeast and east.
Andrey Kovalyov, a spokesman for the General Staff, said the forces had reinforced the positions they reached after attacking the villages of Rivnopil and Staromayorsk, referring to settlements in a Russian-controlled area where Ukrainian forces have captured four villages so far.
He also described heavy fighting in the east, where Ukraine says it is blocking Russian attacks.
Russia says it repulsed the Ukrainian counterattack with heavy casualties, which Ukraine denies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that progress has been slow so far, but said his forces were advancing cautiously into heavily mined and well-protected areas to minimize casualties.
Zelensky on Thursday accused Russia of planning a terrorist attack on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, which is in Russian-controlled territory near the front line. Moscow denied any such plan.
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