Ukrainian army destroys key bridge in Russian-held Kherson region
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Ukrainian troops have struck a strategic bridge essential for Moscow to supply its forces occupying the country’s south, as Russia pounded several areas in Ukraine with rocket and artillery strikes.
The Ukrainian military struck the Antonivskyi Bridge across the Dnieper River late Tuesday, the deputy head of the Moscow-appointed administration for the Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov, said.
He said the bridge was still standing but its deck was pierced with holes, stopping vehicles from crossing.
The 1.4-kilometre bridge sustained serious damage in Ukrainian shelling last week when it took multiple hits. It was closed for trucks but had remained open for passenger vehicles until the strike late Tuesday.
Ukrainian forces used the US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers to hit the bridge, Stremousov claimed. The claim could not be independently verified.
The bridge is the main crossing across the Dnieper River in the Kherson region. The only other option is a dam at the hydroelectric plant in Kakhovka, which also came under Ukrainian fire last week but has remained open for traffic.
Knocking the crossings out would make it hard for the Russian military to keep supplying its forces in the region amid repeated Ukrainian attacks.
Early in the invasion, Russian troops quickly overran the Kherson region just north of the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014. They have faced Ukrainian counter-attacks, but have largely held their ground.
The Ukrainian attacks on the bridge in Kherson come as the bulk of the Russian forces are stuck in the fighting in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of the Donbas where they have made slow gains in the face of ferocious Ukrainian resistance.
Russian forces kept up their artillery barrage in the eastern Donetsk region, targeting towns and villages, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.
In Bakhmut, a key city on the front line of the Russian offensive, the shelling damaged a hotel and caused casualties, Kyrylenko said. A rescue operation was underway.
Amid Moscow’s push to take full control of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Russians have gained marginal ground northeast of Bakhmut, according to a US-based think tank.
Russian forces, however, are unlikely to occupy significant additional territory in Ukraine “before the early autumn,” the Institute for the Study of War said.