Ukraine hits bridge linking Crimea to mainland

Reuters:

KYIV, June 22 – Ukrainian missiles struck one of the few bridges linking the Crimea Peninsula with the Ukrainian mainland early on Thursday, cutting one of the main supply routes for Russian occupation forces in southern Ukraine as Kyiv pushes to drive them out.

Vladimir Saldo, the head of the Russian-installed administration in occupied parts of Ukraine’s Kherson province, released video of himself on the Chonhar road bridge, where craters had been blasted through the asphalt.

“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 said, vowing to repair the bridge and restore traffic.

He threatened to retaliate by targeting a bridge linking neighbouring Moldova to NATO-member Romania: “A very serious response is coming very soon.”

The Chonhar bridge hit overnight is one of just a handful of access roads to Crimea, which is linked to the Ukrainian mainland by a narrow isthmus.

Alternative routes require hours-long detours over roads in poor condition. Russia’s RIA new agency quoted Russian-installed transport officials in Crimea as saying repairing it could take weeks.

The bridge is beyond range of the battlefield rockets Ukraine has used for a year, but within reach of newly deployed weapons such as British and French air-launched cruise missiles, allowing Kyiv to hit logistics routes Russia had deemed safe just weeks ago.