Russian-backed officials in southern Ukraine have accused Kyiv of using British-supplied long-range missiles to strike a bridge connecting Kherson province with the Crimean peninsula.
The strike on the Chonhar Bridge, one of the few links between mainland Ukraine and Crimea, came two days after Moscow threatened to attack Kyiv’s “decision-making centres” if western-supplied missiles were used against Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
A series of photos and videos circulating on Telegram on Thursday showed a large crater on the bridge, with debris littering the roads. There were no casualties reported.
Vladimir Saldo, the Russia-appointed Kherson governor, suggested the bridge was targeted by Storm Shadow missiles, long-range cruise missiles that Britain confirmed it had provided to Ukraine last month.
Russian investigators said four missiles had been fired by Ukrainian forces at the bridge, the RIA news agency reported. It quoted a spokesperson for military investigators as saying that markings found on the remains of one of the missiles suggested it had been made in France.
Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, said on Tuesday that the potential use of US-made Himars and the Storm Shadow missiles against targets in Crimea would mark the west’s “full involvement in the conflict and would entail immediate strikes upon decision-making centres in Ukrainian territory”.
Shadow missiles have a range “in excess of 250km” (155 miles), according to their manufacturer, the European arms group MBDA, significantly further than the high-precision Himars rocket launchers, which have been used heavily by Ukraine.
The shorter-range missiles have become less effective as Russia moves its troop and supply reserves further from the frontlines. The Storm Shadow missiles should allow Ukraine to strike at targets previously out of reach.
Ukrainian authorities did not confirm the use of Shadow missiles in the attack on the bridge. When questioned on the strike, Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for Ukraine’s defence intelligence, said: “Work is ongoing and will be continued. This is the planned work of the security forces, the defence forces, the resistance movement and the local population, which is waiting for the return of Ukrainian legal power in these territories. I can only say: to be continued…”
Prior to Ukraine’s recapture of Kherson last November, its forces repeatedly carried out long-range precision strikes on the nearby key Antonivskyi Bridge.
Several Russian war bloggers said that Gen Sergei Goryachev, a decorated commander, who previously led Russian troops in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria, was likely killed on 13 June, near the southern Zaporizhzhia front, by a UK-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missile.
Last week, Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised the Storm Shadow missiles’ capabilities, suggesting they were boosting Kyiv’s counteroffensive, which he admitted was going “slower than desired”.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Ukraine reconstruction conference in London on Thursday, Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine’s prime minister, said his country’s counteroffensive would take time but that he was optimistic about its success, Agence France-Presse reported.
“We will do very smart, offensive operations,” said the Ukrainian prime minister. “And because of this, it [the counteroffensive] will take time.”
Shmyhal added that the counteroffensive was “a number of military operations. Sometimes it’s offensive. Sometimes it’s defensive. Unfortunately, during our preparation for this counteroffensive Russians were preparing too, so there are so many minefields, which really makes it slower to move,” he said.
Ukraine has announced the liberation of only eight villages as a result of its two weeks of offensive operations, with heavy mining and Russian air superiority proving to be a significant obstacle to progress.
On Thursday, Shoigu said Ukrainian forces in eastern and southern Ukraine were temporarily limiting their efforts to reclaim Moscow-held territory.
“After conducting active hostilities over the past 16 days and having suffered significant losses, the enemy has reduced its activity and is currently regrouping,” Shoigu said, in comments carried by Russian news agencies.
Vladimir Putin has claimed several times within the last week that the Ukrainian counteroffensive was a failure. But during a meeting on Thursday with his security council, he conceded that Kyiv’s forces had “an offensive potential”.
In a separate development, Russia fired cruise and ballistic missiles and strike drones at targets in Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday, causing damage in the cities of Odesa and Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian air defences downed three of the four drones fired in the overnight attack involving three Kinzhal hypersonic and three cruise missiles, the air force said.
“The enemy rockets did not reach their targets in the Dnipropetrovsk region … the occupiers are continuing their terror against the Ukrainian people, attacking Ukraine’s critical infrastructure facilities,” the air force said.
The drones were shot down over the Black Sea region of Odesa in south-western Ukraine, but one of them struck a warehouse, regional administration spokesperson Serhiy Bratchuk said, according to Reuters.
AP, Reuters and AFP contributed to this report.
