Russia today accused Ukraine of perpetrating new attacks against the strategic Crimean bridge, the longest in Europe, while it continued its offensive in the east of the neighboring country and defensive actions in the south, where Kiev’s forces are advancing.
“We strongly condemn these terrorist attacks. The Crimean bridge is a purely civilian infrastructure object,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement. According to Zakharova, kyiv’s “barbaric actions” “have no justification” and “will not go unchallenged.”
Previously, the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Crimean authorities reported at least two attacks with S-200 missiles against the bridge on the annexed peninsula throughout the day today. This morning, the Russian military also reported the destruction of about twenty drones that were launched over Crimea.
The attacks forced the Russian authorities to suspend traffic on the bridge twice in one day, causing long traffic jams near the accesses to the infrastructure.
Ukraine has repeatedly denounced that Russia uses Crimea as a “military base” to launch its attacks against the rest of the Ukrainian territory and has branded the bridge that connects the peninsula, annexed in 2014, with Russian territory as “an unnecessary construction”.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces managed to repulse heavy Russian artillery attacks on several fronts, according to a report from the Ukrainian general staff on Saturday. The Russians launched artillery strikes and airstrikes on virtually all battlefronts, according to the report.
By land, the Russians attempted to advance into Kupiansk, Bakhmut, Avdívka and Marinka but were held back by the Ukrainian defenders. In addition, attacks were reported in the Sumi region, near the border, where, the regional administration said via Telegram, there were nine attacks throughout Friday.
The Russian military, for its part, assured today that they had improved their positions on the Kupiansk front, in the eastern region of Kharkov, where they repulsed eight enemy attacks in one day. The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) also noted in its daily report that “Russian forces appear to be intensifying offensive operations northeast of Kupiansk.”
The spokesman for the Eastern Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Sergey Cherevaty, admitted that Kiev has significantly strengthened defenses on the Kupyansk front in recent days, which ISW says proves that Russian forces may have been successful in his intention to “draw additional Ukrainian forces into that area”, possibly to alleviate the situation for his troops in the south.
And it is that the Ukrainian thrust in the south would have forced the Russians to reinforce their detachments deployed in the Zaporizhia region, according to the latest British intelligence report.
The document indicates that the Russian Army would have sent several units of its airborne forces from the province of Kherson to neighboring Zaporizhia, where there is “heavy fighting” and the Russian troops need relief.
According to the British Ministry of Defense, this redeployment weakens the positions of the Russian forces on the left bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson. The ISW also notes that “the Ukrainian counteroffensive operations appear to be forcing the Russian army to withdraw” its forces in western Zaporizhia, indicating that “the Ukrainian effort there may be significantly degrading Russian defenses.”
The analytical center report adds that “Ukrainian forces made significant tactical advances in western Zaporizhia” in the last day amid continuous offensive operations “in at least three sectors of the front.”