The Ukrainian military used a US-supplied precision rocket system to attack a bridge Russia uses to supply its forces in an occupied region of southern Ukraine, in a blow that boosted Ukrainian morale.
Ukrainian artillery damaged the Antonivskyi bridge on Tuesday night, Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Moscow-appointed administration for the Kherson region, said.
Although the bridge, which crosses the Dnieper River in the southern region, was still standing on Wednesday, holes in the deck prevent vehicles from crossing the 1.4-kilometre (0.9-mile) stretch, Stremousov said. After previous Ukrainian attacks damaged the bridge last week, it was closed to trucks but remained open to passenger vehicles until the most recent attack.
Ukrainian forces used US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers to attack the bridge, Stremousov said. A spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Army Southern Command, Nataliya Gumenyuk, told Ukrainian television that “surgical strikes” were carried out on the bridge.
The HIMARS system has added a more modern technological component to the old Ukrainian military assets.
HIMARS have longer range, much better accuracy, and a faster rate of fire compared to the Soviet-designed Smerch, Uragan, and Tornado multiple rocket launchers used by both Russia and Ukraine.
Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter on Wednesday that “the occupiers should learn to swim” the Dnieper River or “leave Kherson while it is still possible.” “There may not be a third warning,” Podolyak tweeted.
Billions of dollars in Western military aid have been crucial to Ukraine’s efforts to fend off the Russian invasion launched on February 24, but kyiv says there are still few weapons to turn the tide of the war.
While stopping traffic on the bridge, at least temporarily, only makes a small dent in the overall Russian military operation, the attack showed that Russian forces are vulnerable and was a moral triumph for the Ukrainians.
The bridge is the main crossing of the Dnieper River in the Kherson region. The only other option is a dam at the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, which was also attacked by Ukraine last week but remains open to traffic.
Early in the war, Russian troops quickly overran the Kherson region, just north of the Crimean peninsula, which Russia captured in 2014. They have faced Ukrainian counter-attacks but have largely held their ground.
At the same time, the bulk of Russian troops continue to battle for the country’s industrial heartland, eastern Donbass, where they have made slow progress against stiff Ukrainian resistance. The arrival of US weapons such as HIMARS has helped slow Moscow’s advances.
Russian troops kept up artillery attacks on the eastern province of Donetsk, hitting towns and villages, said its governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko.
In Bakhmut, a key city on the front lines of the Russian offensive, the shelling caused damage to a hotel and several casualties, Kyrylenko said. There was a rescue operation underway.
In the midst of the Russian offensive to take full control of Donetsk and Luhansk, the two provinces that make up Donbas, Moscow has made marginal progress northeast of Bakhmut, according to a Washington DC-based think tank.
However, it is highly unlikely that Kremlin troops will significantly increase the territories they occupy “before early autumn,” the Institute for the Study of War said.
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, affirmed that the casualties of the Russian Army amount to almost 40,000 troops, in addition to the tens of thousands wounded and mutilated. His claim could not be independently verified.
Russia last reported its casualties in March, when it said there were 1,351 combat deaths and 3,825 wounded.
Separately, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk, a central-eastern region of Ukraine, reported Russian artillery strikes in two areas of the province. Valentyn Reznichenko said that in the town of Marhanets, a woman was injured and several apartment buildings, a hospital and a school were damaged by shelling.
In addition, the night bombardments caused six injuries in the city of Kharkiv, in the north, explained its mayor, Ihor Terekhov.
The Ukrainian military used a US-supplied precision rocket system to attack a bridge Russia uses to supply its forces in an occupied region of southern Ukraine, in a blow that boosted Ukrainian morale.
Ukrainian artillery damaged the Antonivskyi bridge on Tuesday night, Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Moscow-appointed administration for the Kherson region, said.
Although the bridge, which crosses the Dnieper River in the southern region, was still standing on Wednesday, holes in the deck prevent vehicles from crossing the 1.4-kilometre (0.9-mile) stretch, Stremousov said. After previous Ukrainian attacks damaged the bridge last week, it was closed to trucks but remained open to passenger vehicles until the most recent attack.
Ukrainian forces used US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers to attack the bridge, Stremousov said. A spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Army Southern Command, Nataliya Gumenyuk, told Ukrainian television that “surgical strikes” were carried out on the bridge.
The HIMARS system has added a more modern technological component to the old Ukrainian military assets.
HIMARS have longer range, much better accuracy, and a faster rate of fire compared to the Soviet-designed Smerch, Uragan, and Tornado multiple rocket launchers used by both Russia and Ukraine.
Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter on Wednesday that “the occupiers should learn to swim” the Dnieper River or “leave Kherson while it is still possible.” “There may not be a third warning,” Podolyak tweeted.
Billions of dollars in Western military aid have been crucial to Ukraine’s efforts to fend off the Russian invasion launched on February 24, but kyiv says there are still few weapons to turn the tide of the war.
While stopping traffic on the bridge, at least temporarily, only makes a small dent in the overall Russian military operation, the attack showed that Russian forces are vulnerable and was a moral triumph for the Ukrainians.
The bridge is the main crossing of the Dnieper River in the Kherson region. The only other option is a dam at the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, which was also attacked by Ukraine last week but remains open to traffic.
Early in the war, Russian troops quickly overran the Kherson region, just north of the Crimean peninsula, which Russia captured in 2014. They have faced Ukrainian counter-attacks but have largely held their ground.
At the same time, the bulk of Russian troops continue to battle for the country’s industrial heartland, eastern Donbass, where they have made slow progress against stiff Ukrainian resistance. The arrival of US weapons such as HIMARS has helped slow Moscow’s advances.
Russian troops kept up artillery attacks on the eastern province of Donetsk, hitting towns and villages, said its governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko.
In Bakhmut, a key city on the front lines of the Russian offensive, the shelling caused damage to a hotel and several casualties, Kyrylenko said. There was a rescue operation underway.
In the midst of the Russian offensive to take full control of Donetsk and Luhansk, the two provinces that make up Donbas, Moscow has made marginal progress northeast of Bakhmut, according to a Washington DC-based think tank.
However, it is highly unlikely that Kremlin troops will significantly increase the territories they occupy “before early autumn,” the Institute for the Study of War said.
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, affirmed that the casualties of the Russian Army amount to almost 40,000 troops, in addition to the tens of thousands wounded and mutilated. His claim could not be independently verified.
Russia last reported its casualties in March, when it said there were 1,351 combat deaths and 3,825 wounded.
Separately, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk, a central-eastern region of Ukraine, reported Russian artillery strikes in two areas of the province. Valentyn Reznichenko said that in the town of Marhanets, a woman was injured and several apartment buildings, a hospital and a school were damaged by shelling.
In addition, the night bombardments caused six injuries in the city of Kharkiv, in the north, explained its mayor, Ihor Terekhov.
