Ukraine's missile attack hit one of the bridges connecting the Crimea Peninsula with the Ukrainian mainland on Thursday morning, June 22. The bridge is a key supply channel for Russian troops operating in southern Ukraine.
Bridge to Crimea Has Been Destroyed
According to Reuters, there is footage showing Russian-installed governor Vladimir Saldo, who rules over seized areas of Ukraine's Kherson region, standing on the cratered asphalt of the Chonhar road bridge.
"Another meaningless act perpetrated by the Kyiv regime on orders from London. It solves nothing as far as the special military operation is concerned," he stated as he promised to fix the bridge and get traffic going again.
He threatened to strike a bridge connecting NATO-member Romania and Moldova.
Crimea is connected to the rest of Ukraine by a narrow strip of land, and the midnight attack on the Chonhar bridge shut off one of the few roadways leading there.
Russian-appointed transport authorities in Crimea suggest that fixing it may take weeks, as reported by the Russian news agency RIA via Reuters.
While the battlefield rockets Ukraine has employed over the last year cannot reach the bridge, newly deployed weaponry like British and French air-launched cruise missiles can. This gives Kyiv access to supply channels Russia had previously thought secure.
According to Yuriy Sobolevsky, a Ukrainian official on the Kherson regional governing body, the attack constituted a blow to the military supplies of the invaders. "The psychological impact on the occupiers and the occupying power is even more important. There is no place on the territory of Kherson region where they can feel safe."
The RIA news agency quoted Russian investigators as saying that four missiles had been launched at the bridge by Ukrainian soldiers. One of the missiles was apparently manufactured in France.
Its Most Aggressive Counteroffensive
Ukraine is beginning its most ambitious counteroffensive of the conflict by hitting Russian supply lines in an effort to destabilize Moscow's defense of captured territory in the south.
Kyiv claims to have retaken eight villages. Yet, the majority of its forces have not yet been committed, and their advancing military personnel have not yet reached the main Russian defense lines.
Ukraine's armed forces have claimed "partial success" in the east and southeast, according to the most recent information on the conflict.
General Staff spokesperson Andriy Kovaliov said troops were fortifying positions they acquired after entering Rivnopil and Staromayorske, areas in a Russian-held territory where Ukrainian forces pushing south had seized four villages. He also detailed the intense battle taking place in the east, where Ukraine claims to have repelled Russian aggression.
Russia claims it has successfully repelled the Ukrainian offensive and caused serious fatalities, but Ukraine refutes these claims.
Although Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy admits that progress has been sluggish so far, he insists that his soldiers are proceeding slowly into severely mined and well-defended regions to minimize casualties.
