Ukraine strikes key Crimea bridges with Storm Shadow missiles
Storm Shadow missiles struck key bridges linking Crimea with occupied Ukraine, as Kyiv and Moscow traded long-range attacks.
Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed head of Crimea, said the British-supplied cruise missiles damaged the Chongar bridge, which spans a short stretch of water separating the peninsula from the Kherson region.
“The enemy launched a missile attack near the Chongar bridge,” Mr Aksyonov said.
“One hit, some missiles were shot down,” he said, adding that repair work was ongoing.
The Russian military had used the road to resupply its frontline forces in Kherson and Zaporizhzia from Crimea. This has made it a priority target for Ukraine’s military, which also hit the bridge in June.
Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed governor of Kherson, published a photograph of a crater on the bridge and said that another, smaller, nearby bridge had also been hit.
Ukraine’s military confirmed the strikes, which it said had “hit two key communication routes of the occupiers”.
The bridge strikes came after an intense Russian bombardment of Ukraine and another alleged Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow.
Ukraine’s air force said that it shot down most of the Russian missiles and drones but they still hit a blood transfusion centre near the northern sector of the eastern frontline and a factory in Zaporizhzhia that produces engines for helicopters and planes.
“In total, over several waves of attacks from the evening of August 5 to the morning of August 6 2023, the enemy used 70 means of air attack,” it said.
Analysts said that the heavy Russian bombardment was retaliation for Ukrainian naval drone attacks on a civilian tanker on Friday night and a Russian naval warship the night before.
Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, said that the city’s air defences had also shot down another Ukrainian drone, the third attack in a week.
“Today at around 11 o’clock there was an attempt to break through to Moscow by a drone. It was destroyed on approach by air-defence forces,” he added.
Last Sunday and on Tuesday, drones sent by Ukraine managed to pass through the air defences around the Russian capital and smashed into a skyscraper housing several government ministries.
