Ukrainians hit four more Crimea bridges, amid reports of empty shelves in food shops (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,568)

Ukrainians are trying to turn the Crimean peninsula into an island. After damaging in recent days two bridges leading from Russian-occupied southern Ukraine to Crimea (near the towns of Chonhar and Henichesk) in the north-east, they hit another four bridges in the north-western part of the peninsula on Thursday night.

The Russian governor of the occupied Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, reported this.

“During the night, the enemy attacked bridges over the North Crimean Canal near the villages of Preobrazhenka and Myrne, the road bridge between Perekop and Armiansk, and a bridge near the village of Stavky. According to preliminary reports, there was some damage. Experts are inspecting and assessing the condition of these structures,” Saldo wrote .

He added that Russian forces had shot down 45 Ukrainian drones, though clearly not all of them.

Crimea is connected by land to southern Ukraine only in the north-west, via the Perekop Isthmus, which is just 9 kms wide at its narrowest point. There are also several road bridges over the North Crimean Canal here, and putting them out of action would significantly complicate logistics to Crimea.

According to Google Maps, these could be smaller bridges over the North Crimean Canal, including the main bridge leading to the town of Armiansk.

How extensive was the damage, and are the roads cut off? The pro-Ukrainian account Crimean Wind has been monitoring information from Crimea. According to it, residents of Armiansk reported that only private cars were being allowed to cross the bridge into the town. “The bridge itself is being inspected to determine whether it is fit for operation,” the account wrote .

“Next to the road bridge there is a pedestrian bridge carrying two pipes with a diameter of one metre, which supplied water to the town. Because of the explosions, the pipes have been shattered into pieces. Residents of the town are in a panic because they will be left without water,” Crimean Wind added .

Ukrainian journalist Andriy Tsaplienko wrote that, according to Russian public channels, logistics via the land corridor to Crimea were cut. “Ukrainian forces critically damaged three bridges during the night. The passage of military equipment across them is practically impossible,” he wrote.

The Ukrainian account Oko Hora published a map with all the bridges leading to Crimea that Ukrainians have hit over the past week.

They have hit the Chonhar bridge in the north-east of Crimea twice; it was the main entry route to the peninsula. In reality there are two bridges here, but as the account DeepState UA wrote , the old bridge was not suitable for use.

After the second strike, a pontoon bridge again appeared in satellite images.

1/3 Russia constructed a pontoon bridge on June 7 after a Ukrainian strike damaged the main bridge at Chongar, which connects Crimea and Kherson Oblast. This can be seen by comparing @planet satellite images taken on June 6 and 7. https://t.co/d7bhYFjx0A pic.twitter.com/FMJ6Oi76cn

The Russians had built this pontoon bridge here already in 2023 after the first attacks on the Chonhar bridge. At that time, the Ukrainians used Storm Shadow missiles.

Now they are attacking with FP-2 drones, or with the new Behemoth drone. Even though the Russians shoot many of them down, they have not managed to fully protect the bridges. The drones cause only limited damage, but they allow the bridges to be shelled repeatedly.

A little further north, a road from the town of Henichesk leads onto the Arabat Spit, which can also be used to reach Crimea. And even though on Tuesday we wrote that this was mostly a dirt track for adventurers, as Google Maps also shows, the DeepState account wrote that the Russians had built a new road here and that “the occupiers are using it as an alternative route.”

However, the Ukrainians have now damaged the bridge leading onto the spit, as satellite images also show.

Damage to the bridge connecting Kherson Oblast and Crimea via the Arabat Spit following the June 8 Ukrainian strike can also be seen in a low-res @Planet image taken June 10. The image also shows pre-existing infrastructure for the deployment of a pontoon bridge. 46.1476, 34.8076 pic.twitter.com/PgGaysKHJA

If, in the long term, Russia redirected its logistics routes via the Perekop Isthmus, this would extend transport by at least two hours. It would also bring freight lorries closer to Ukrainian positions, which would, according to the DeepState UA account , create a kind of trap for the Russians.

Of course, the connection via the Crimean bridge still exists. However, Ukrainians have already attacked it in the past, and a similar strike cannot be ruled out again.

Completely cutting Crimea off from southern Ukraine will, however, be difficult. As the account Vitaliy wrote, there are several dams across salt marshes that can be used as backup routes, even if they would be a very limited alternative. It is unclear whether heavy lorries could drive along them.

There are 4 dams with a dirt road across Syvash, that russia can eventually prepare for a truck traffic. But ignorance is a powerful force. https://t.co/k1v2Jd3JYt pic.twitter.com/ZEGjBU3ge5

For the Ukrainians, however, a major success would also be to significantly complicate transport. “Crimea cannot be completely cut off, so the main focus is to make transport less convenient,” Vitaliy wrote.

It is very difficult to put these bridges completely out of action, since the Russians keep repairing them. “Unfortunately, it is not always possible to inflict significant damage that would allow these facilities to be disabled for a long time,” the Oko Hora account stated .

From a military point of view, this may affect operations above all in southern Ukraine, particularly in the Zaporizhzhia region. Russian accounts had previously speculated that Ukrainians were preparing a larger offensive, which, however, still seems rather unlikely for now.

“Extending such a blockade could lead to significant changes in combat operations in the south. We must not succumb to euphoria over the destruction of bridges, because they can be restored, which people in Moscow are already doing. However, the defence forces have demonstrated much more, capabilities that allow them to control everything moving through the southern part of the occupied territory, especially from Crimea,” DeepState UA wrote .

In the meantime, the situation with petrol supplies in Crimea has worsened further. The governor of occupied Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, wrote that the QR codes which allowed residents to buy petrol worth up to €20 per week were no longer valid.

“Unfortunately, tanker trucks with fuel were unable to enter the city this evening,” he wrote. “I urge everyone: there is no point in standing in line tomorrow (Thursday, editor’s note) at TES petrol stations. As for the validity of QR codes, all codes issued so far will be deactivated today,” he said, according to Ukrainska pravda.

Apparently, petrol can still be obtained on the black market. The Crimean Wind account published a video showing petrol being sold at 180 roubles per litre, which is roughly €2.1. That is twice the price at which it is normally sold in Russia. According to the account, there were also reports that in some places it costs 250 roubles per litre, or about €3.

The Russians have also restricted and cancelled some bus services in Crimea.

While Russian forces are pushing ever deeper into the town of Kostyantynivka, Ukrainians are also carrying out smaller counterattacks. Less is said about them because the Ukrainian army and pro-Ukrainian analytical accounts are observing operational silence and are not reporting on them.

As French analyst Clément Molin wrote , these are two locations. First of all, Ukrainians have advanced north of the town of Lyman.

In recent days, Andrew Perpetua has recorded advances here. On this map there are two newly liberated “blue” areas between the villages of Lypove and Shandryholove.

This corresponds with data from the same area published by the Russian account Rybar.

“In the Lyman direction, the situation on the northern flank is deteriorating, with the Ukrainian armed forces having occupied several forest belts along the Shandryholove, Lypove line,” the Russian channel Two Majors also wrote .

Expert Andrew Perpetua believes that Ukrainians are also advancing from the west of this salient. This is what the map would look like if he incorporated Russian claims about the Ukrainian advance.

Russians claim Ukraine has pushed up like this. pic.twitter.com/ch0XMg4Lhc

And this is what it would look like if he mapped the most maximalist Russian claims he found.

And I suppose if you wanted to go full on maximalist, based upon the claims I have seen, it might be more like this. pic.twitter.com/2iUJs3iO3R

“Everything suggests that Ukraine has advanced further than current maps show north of Lyman. The Russians claim that Ukraine has captured villages and other areas that were once firmly under their control but are now contested. I try to ensure my map contains only verified facts, so I am much more cautious,” Perpetua wrote .