Kyiv says it hit Russian troop bases and key bridges overnight

Ukraine carried out long-range strikes against Russian troop bases and two important bridges on the Dnieper River overnight, Ukrainian officials said.

The strikes hit Russia’s only two crossings to the pocket of southern Ukrainian territory it has captured on the west bank of the Dnieper River, said Natalya Khumeniuk, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern military command. “The results (of the strikes) are quite remarkable, hits on the Antonovsky and Kakhovsky bridges,” she said on television.

“What a night for the occupiers in the Kherson region. Hits in the Antonovsky Bridge area,” local official Sergey Khlan said on Facebook.

The Antonovsky Bridge, on the outskirts of Kherson in southern Ukraine, is strategically important for resupply as it is the only passage for the city on the southern banks of the Dnieper and the rest of the Kherson region. It has already been targeted and partially destroyed on July 27, forcing the Russian military to rethink its supply chains.

Kherson, the capital of the region of the same name, is located a few kilometers from the front where Ukrainian forces have for weeks announced a counteroffensive to recapture territory lost during the first days of the Russian offensive against Ukraine. The region, which is important for Ukrainian agriculture, is also strategically important because it borders the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014. By conquering it, Russia was able to create a land bridge to connect Crimea with the Russian territory and other Ukrainian territories it holds.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian strikes with HIMARS systems also hit several military bases in Russian-held Melitopol in southern Ukraine in the early hours of the morning, killing soldiers and destroying infrastructure, the city’s exiled mayor said. “According to initial estimates, a significant amount of military equipment was destroyed,” Mayor Ivan Fedorov said in a Telegram post.

SOURCE: AMPE