Ukraine steps up attacks on Russian-occupied Kherson

A key Russian-held bridge into the occupied southern city of Kherson has been hit with a barrage of rocket fire by Ukrainian forces, who appear to be stepping up operations to isolate the city.

Video and witness accounts pointed to up to 18 detonations on the Antonivskiy Bridge over the Dnieper River, one of the main Russian resupply routes into Kherson, with Russian anti-missile air defences apparently failing to intercept the strikes. A second railway bridge upstream was also hit.

The latest strike on the bridge came as Ukraine’s navy confirmed on Wednesday that work had started at three Ukrainian Black Sea ports aimed at preparing for the resumption of grain exports.

Ukraine’s armed forces published a one-minute clip on Telegram showing the rocket fire on the bridge just after 1am on Wednesday. “The moment of the flight over the Antonivskiy Bridge,” the force said.

A spokesperson for the Ukrainian military’s southern command, Nataliya Humenyuk, told Ukrainian TV that “surgical strikes” were carried out on the bridge. We are not destroying the infrastructure, we are destroying the enemy’s plans,” she added.

A senior presidential adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Anton Gerashchenko, cited Ukraine’s armed forces in an update posted on Wednesday morning: “[The missile system] Himars dealt another powerful blow to one of the two bridges, which are used by the invaders for a massive transfer of troops. Let’s hope that this time the Antonivskiy Bridge will not withstand the power of the Himars missile attack.”

Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Russian-installed regional authority in Kherson, spoke with Russian media on Wednesday morning, confirming the bridge was shelled but claiming it was still standing.

Filmed standing on one side of the bridge in a flak jacket, Stermousov said: “As you can see the movement over the bridge has been suspended. Indeed, tonight there was a strike by Himars.”

In response to the attack on the bridge, Russian military bloggers, some of whom have become more critical of the Kremlin’s conduct of the war, underlined the problems facing Russian forces in the Kherson area.

Among them was the Voennyi Osvedomitel (military informant) Telegram channel, which has a following of 450,000 people.

“The repeated attacks by the armed forces of Ukraine have led to – so far – a temporary failure of the Antonivskiy Bridge, forcing the construction of ferry and pontoon crossings as an alternative.

“There are exactly two problems here. First, the consequences of shelling the bridge have a cumulative effect, that is, each subsequent one does more damage than the previous one … The second is that alternatives in the form of pontoons / ferries are much more vulnerable to enemy fire.

“We are forced to conclude that the problem with the ongoing attempts of the armed forces of Ukraine to cut off the right-bank grouping of [Russian forces] from supplies is not being resolved.”

The bridge has come under repeated attack in the past week as Ukraine has tried to cut off the handful of routes Russia can use to move heavy weapons in and around Kherson, including a road over the dam at nearby Nova Kakhovka.

Kherson, captured in early March, has long been a focus for the Ukrainians, with the defenders making limited gains in the countryside between Mykolaiv and the target city since April. But, apparently helped by longer-range weapons with an effective firing distance of up to 50 miles (80km), the Ukrainians are growing more confident.

Sergiy Khlan, an aide to the administrative head of the Kherson region, told Ukrainian TV a turning point had been reached, and that the region would “definitely be liberated by September”.

The latest strikes come as Russian forces continue to dig in in the south, in preparation for a long-advertised southern counter-offensive by Ukraine.

Russian troops have also spanned the Inhulets River with a pontoon bridge in an effort to keep open usable crossings, and are reported to be repairing an airfield in Melitopol while also attempting to repair the Antonivskiy Bridge, after previous attacks left visible holes in the surface of the span.

During the developing battle in the south in the past fortnight, Ukrainian forces have repeatedly struck Russian ammunition dumps and command posts with US-supplied Himars missile systems, while Russia has fired missiles at Ukrainian positions along the coast.

While the position of fighting on the ground is far less clear, it appears that there has been fighting around a Ukrainian bridgehead to the east of the Inhulets River.

Elsewhere in the south, Ukrainian forces suffered a setback after being forced to retreat from around the Vuhlehirska power plant and the nearby village of Novoluhanske, where mercenaries from the Russian private military firm Wagner had made advances.