Missiles strike bridge between Kherson, Crimea
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia-appointed officials in Crimea said that a bridge between the Moscow-annexed peninsula and Russia-occupied areas in southern Ukraine was hit by missiles Thursday, threatening a key supply link to Russian forces amid the early stages of a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The Russian military has relied on the Chongar bridge as the principal connection to its forces in the Kherson region, part of which is controlled by Moscow. Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-appointed Kherson governor, said the bridge was hit by air-launched Storm Shadow missiles supplied by the U.K.
Ukrainian authorities, who usually refrain from commenting on specific attacks, didn’t directly claim responsibility for the strike, but spokeswoman Natalia Humeniuk for the Ukrainian military’s Southern Command emphasized the importance of derailing Russia’s logistics in televised comments.
“We are destroying enemy plans, destroying the enemy’s capability to stand up against us,” she said.
Russia-appointed officials in Crimea said that while it could take weeks to fully repair the bridge, traffic could continue on one lane and noted that two other crossings are also available. But despite those attempts to downplay the damage, the attack has hurt the Russian military logistics at a time when Ukrainian forces are probing Russian defenses in the initial stages of a long-expected counteroffensive.
Ukrainian authorities have said that for the war to end, Russia must withdraw its forces from Crimea that it illegally annexed in 2014 as well as from the areas that Moscow seized since launching the full-scale invasion 16 months ago.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu warned earlier this week that Ukraine was planning to use U.S.-made HIMARS and U.K.-provided Storm Shadow missiles to attack Russian territory, including Crimea. He warned that use of those missiles against targets outside the combat zone would “trigger immediate strikes on the decision-making centers on the territory of Ukraine.”
But on Thursday, Shoigu sought to downplay the importance of West-supplied advanced weapons like the Storm Shadow missiles as he reported to President Vladimir Putin during a session of Russia’s Security Council.
“We understand that the quantity that will be delivered in 2023 and that has already been delivered will not significantly affect the course of hostilities,” Shoigu said.
Shoigu declared that Russian forces have successfully fended off Ukrainian attempts to break through Russian defenses as part of a counteroffensive that began earlier this month. He claimed that Ukrainian troops are now regrouping after suffering heavy losses, noting that “the enemy still has forces to continue offensive operations.”
Shoigu said that the Russian military is forming additional reserves after drawing an additional 166,000 volunteer soldiers this year. That number tops 300,000 reservists who were mobilized on Putin’s order in the fall.
Shoigu added that while the volunteers are “highly motivated and eager to go to combat,” the military doesn’t need them yet and will continue training them for now. They will be pulled together under a single command, the minister said.
Neither Putin nor Shoigu made any mention of the attack on the Chongar bridge in their televised comments at the start of a security meeting.
In the opening days of Russia’s February 2022 invasion, Russian troops from Crimea pushed north and quickly captured the entire Kherson province. Ukraine reclaimed the city of Kherson and other areas on the west bank of the Dnieper that bisects the province during its counteroffensive in the fall.
Russia has continued to hold onto the east bank. The destruction of an upriver dam this month caused dozens of deaths and extensive flooding on both sides. Ukrainian commanders say it also got in the way of some of their plans for taking Russian positions in the area in the counteroffensive’s initial stages.
Addressing the overall progress of the counteroffensive unfolding in Ukraine’s south and east, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Thursday that Ukraine’s army had advanced 4.35 miles and retaken territory that included eight villages during the past two weeks.
“As the president of Ukraine said yesterday, the counteroffensive is not a Hollywood movie. It’s not an easy walk,” Shmyhal told reporters at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London. “The counteroffensive is a number of military operations. Sometimes it’s offensive, sometimes it’s defensive. Sometimes it could be tactical pauses. Unfortunately, during our preparation for this counteroffensive, Russians were preparing too. So there is so much minefields, which really make it slower.”
‘TERRORIST ACT’ WARNING
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Thursday that Russian forces were preparing a “terrorist act” at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest atomic power station, as officials in Moscow said the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, Rafael Grossi, would travel to Russia to meet with nuclear authorities today.
Ukrainian “intelligence has received information that Russia is considering the scenario of a terrorist act at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant — a terrorist act with the release of radiation,” Zelenskyy said in a video address released on social media Thursday morning. “They have prepared everything for this.”
Zelenskyy did not provide further details but said Ukraine would share “all the evidence” with Kyiv’s international partners — “all of them.” He also warned that “radiation knows no borders” and “who it hits” will depend on the “direction of the wind.”
Russia rejected Zelenskyy’s accusations. “Zelenskyy’s words that Russia is allegedly preparing an act of terrorism at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are another lie,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said shortly after the Ukrainian leader’s video was released.
Zelenskyy’s warning was issued as concerns are growing over the Zaporizhzhia plant’s security.
Fighting in the region has intensified after Kyiv launched a counteroffensive against Russia’s invading forces, while the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant in southern Ukraine has raised worries over water levels in the nuclear station’s cooling pond.
On Thursday, Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, would meet the head of Russia’s state nuclear company, Alexei Likhachev, in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad today.