Vladimir Saldo, the Kremlin-appointed governor of Kherson, put a number on it Thursday: at least 45 drone attacks on the bridges at Armyansk. “According to preliminary reports, some damage has occurred,” he wrote, adding that experts were inspecting the structures.
Two days earlier he had warned of roughly 20 attacks on the bridge serving Chonhar and said traffic there was shut. His office then started suggesting other routes. It also said civilian passenger buses in the region would stop running, citing a fuel shortage.
Ukraine’s 1st Separate Assault Regiment says its drones did this. The unit reported striking the Armyansk, Henichesk and Chonhar areas over the past week. These are the three chokepoints where Crimea meets the southern front, and the bridges there, 50 to 75 miles from the front lines, have been vital to Moscow’s supply routes into the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
The method is blunt. Clips the regiment posted across five days show first-person-view drones dive onto the bridge roadway from above, again and again. Some strikes were coordinated with the 475th Assault Regiment and the Alpha unit of the Security Service of Ukraine.
“The only way of delivery of Russian soldiers, ammunition, and fuel from the temporarily occupied Crimea was attacked,” the unit wrote.
What flew, and what it cost Russia
Two mid-range types did the work. The FirePoint FP-2 has an 18-foot wingspan and a 220-pound explosive payload. The Hippo, at 7.5 feet across, carries a 77-pound thermobaric charge plus 88 pounds of explosives.
Several clips show at least two bridges on fire, with heavy structural damage in places. Business Insider said it could not independently verify the footage.
Here is the catch for Moscow. These drones outrange and outhit grenade-carrying quadcopters, yet they cost less to build than the long-distance models Ukraine sends against Russia’s military-industrial base. In earlier years Kyiv mostly relied on sabotage or artillery such as the US-made HIMARS to damage such bridges.
Further east the same logic is playing out on the R-280 highway, which runs from Rostov-on-Don to Crimea. According to The Guardian, Robert “Madyar” Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Drone Forces, said freight shipments along the road fell 71% in the last two weeks. Russian troops now call it the “highway of death,” the paper reported, and movement on the Chongar Bridge was also halted this week.
The Institute for the Study of War says the mid-range strikes “are already delivering noticeable operational results.” Ukraine is also fielding a new light drone called Morrigan, launched from a catapult or from rails.
Sources
- Ukrainian troops are crippling Russia's supply bridges by slamming drones repeatedly into the asphalt
- Ukrainian drones cripple Russia’s R-280 supply corridor | Межа
