Ukraine attacked a bridge connecting Crimea with Russia using 12 ATACMS missiles, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The weapons were allegedly thrown at the legally built Crimean (Kerch) bridge on the night of August 15-16, the Kremlin-friendly RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Traffic had to be suspended on the road and railway bridge between 3:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m., according to local Telegram channel Crimean Wind.
Russia built the bridge across the Kerch Strait between 2016 and 2018, after annexing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Ukraine has long considered the bridge a legitimate target, with its foreign ministry saying at its inauguration: “The construction of the Kerch Bridge is another illegal act of the Russian Federation aimed at consolidating the illegal occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.”
kyiv has not yet said anything about the attack. Newsweek contacted the Ukrainian Defense Ministry for confirmation and comment.
AP
Ukraine attacks bridge in Kursk region
Ukraine also reportedly attacked a second bridge in the Kursk region as it continues its cross-border military offensive.
Moscow believes that the weapons used by Ukraine in the attack were probably supplied by the United States. A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said on her Telegram channel: “For the first time, the Kursk region was attacked by Western-made rockets, probably American HIMARS.
“As a result of the attack on the bridge over the Seim River in the Glushkovsky district, it was completely destroyed and volunteers who were providing assistance to the evacuated civilian population were killed.”
Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk shared on his Telegram channel a clip of a bridge being targeted by Ukrainian pilots using “high-precision strikes against enemy strongholds.”
This dramatic clip shows part of the bridge exploding before a thick plume of smoke rises into the air and clears to reveal a major breach in the bridge.
Ukraine launched its surprise incursion into Russian territory on August 6, marking the first invasion of Russia by a foreign power since World War II.
On Tuesday, Gen. Christopher Cavoli, now supreme allied commander Europe, said Russia had had a “rather slow and scattered response” to the offensive.
He told an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations: “Russia doesn’t establish who has authority. The Defense Ministry is responsible for military operations inside Ukraine, but not inside Russia, right?”
On Thursday, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov announced the creation of a “coordination council” within the Russian Defense Ministry for the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions.
In a letter to Telegram, the minister said that this would “increase the effectiveness of comprehensive support for groups of troops performing the tasks of covering the state border and protecting the territory and population of the regions.”
