Ukrainians no longer need expensive Western missiles to blow up bridges in Russian occupied territories (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,589)

We have already written in this series how difficult it is to destroy bridges. And it is even harder if, like Ukraine, you do not have enough missiles and rely mainly on medium- and long-range drones for your attacks.

In recent days, however, Ukrainians have managed not merely to damage but to outright destroy two bridges in the vicinity of Mariupol. Photographs show that repairs will be demanding, at least in the second case.

First, Ukrainians struck a bridge in Novoazovsk. This is a town between Mariupol and Russia, on route R-280, which is a land corridor from Russia to Crimea through occupied southern Ukraine.

The photographs suggested that the Russians would not repair the bridge any time soon.

Ukrainian attack drones successfully destroyed the E-58 highway bridge in Novoazovsk, dropping the main deck into the Hruzkyi Yelanchyk River. Ukrainian forces continue their campaign to destroy bridges on Russian rear-area supply routes, knocking down several over the past week pic.twitter.com/tLvIZQGGCd

Footage of even greater destruction arrived on Wednesday and showed a bridge over the river Malyi Kalchyk (Russians call it Kalka). It is a four-lane highway bridge that carried the main road from Mariupol to the city of Donetsk. Photos and videos showed that an entire section of the roughly 90-metre bridge had collapsed in both directions.

A bridge on the Donetsk-Mariupol highway on the Russian supply route was destroyed. pic.twitter.com/YTauM9Onl7

💥 Mariupol-Donetsk highway, damaged bridge! pic.twitter.com/xViDpFXv3x

As wrote Petro Andriushchenko, former adviser to the Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol and now head of the Centre for the Study of Occupation, these were new bridges that the Russians had built and repaired.

“I would like to send my regards to the fuc… idiot who said it made no sense to attack bridges,” the Russian account Romanov Lajt wrote .

More interesting is how the Ukrainians destroyed the bridge. Although there was initial speculation that they had used a cruise missile, the Russians found debris from FP-2 drones at the site.

Denys Shtilierman, the owner of the company Fire Point, which manufactures these drones, published an image of the bridge with the caption “3FP2”, indicating that the bridge was destroyed by three of his drones.

Back in May, Shtilierman told Ukrainian media that the FP-2 drone, designed mainly for medium-range strikes, had been upgraded to carry up to 200 kilograms of explosives and to fly a distance of 370 km.

“We changed the wing, and now the FP-2 in its largest version can carry 200 kg over a distance of 370 km, it is a kind of cheap replacement for a guided bomb,” Shtilierman said .

Two hundred kilograms already makes the drone a powerful weapon. For comparison, Russian Gerans can usually carry about 40 to 90 kg of explosives. Storm Shadow missiles, which are much more destructive, carry a warhead of about 450 kg, meaning the FP-2 currently has roughly half the destructive power of this expensive British weapon.

By increasing the weight of the warheads on their drones, Ukrainians have increased the effectiveness of their strikes. For example, the long-range FP-1 drones can now carry 105 kg.

As wrote RAND think tank analyst Michael Bohnert, larger warheads are a key factor in why Ukrainian strikes are more effective.

“Several small and very precise analogues of aerial bombs are hitting the bridges, which is enough either to seriously damage them or to destroy them,” the Russian channel Military Informant stated .

The bridges are, of course, out of service, but for now it seems that the Russians have an alternative route. Military Informant wrote that, as in the case of the bridge in Novoazovsk, there is a bypass route near the destroyed bridge by Mariupol.

“In addition, the watercourse itself is shallow and, in theory, an embankment could be built across it,” it added.

According to Ukrainian analyst Andriushchenko, if Ukrainians also put these alternatives out of action, the remaining detours will lengthen the journey by an hour, and in the case of Novoazovsk by at least an hour and a half. Completely cutting the land route through the occupied territories is not easy, but it can be made more difficult.

Shelling bridges is a game in which Ukrainians try to put a bridge out of operation, and Russians respond by repairing it or building a pontoon bridge or a bypass. Journalist Mark Krutov from Radio Svoboda showed what this looks like when he published satellite images of the bridge near the town of Henichesk, which leads to the Arabat Spit, one of the alternative routes to Crimea.

Ukrainians struck this bridge in June, and it is still out of service. Instead of repairs, the Russians rushed to build alternatives. According to the images, they constructed two bridges next to it, one pontoon bridge and another route built on an embankment.

1/2 Russia constructed two new bridges, an embankment crossing and a pontoon bridge, on the road from Genichesk in Kherson Oblast to the Arabat Spit in Crimea to compensate for damage to the main bridge caused by Ukrainian strikes. Images by @planet , latest taken on June 30. https://t.co/xo4EKshYdD pic.twitter.com/1j9qLeG03u

According to analyst Andriushchenko, this is another example showing that Ukrainians should strike at the moment when such a bridge or its alternative is being built by the Russians. “Because it is easier to prevent construction than to destroy the replacement later. Even if the bridges look rather flimsy. A dam is a more demanding task,” Andriushchenko wrote.

The first tankers with Indian oil are heading to Russia. Russia is an oil power, the third largest country in oil production and, until recently, also in refining capacity. Nevertheless, at the moment it has to negotiate with other countries for fuel supplies, which the Kremlin now officially admits.

According to Reuters sources , two tankers carrying more than 60,000 tonnes of petrol from India to Russia are already en route. In total, according to the agency’s sources, the Russians want to import 400,000 tonnes per month. In summer, Russia consumes 110,000 tonnes a day, so these deliveries would cover not even four days.

A further 50,000 tonnes of petrol in July and August has been promised by Kazakhstan as “humanitarian aid”. That is half a day’s consumption. Additional deliveries are coming from Belarus.

In the meantime, Ukrainians have hit another refinery, with videos emerging this time of a fire at the refinery in Kstovo in Nizhny Novgorod.

Clearer footage of the burning refinery in Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod region, in Russia. It is an inferno. pic.twitter.com/cx0YRL9774

Major attack on Kyiv. For two weeks, Ukraine had relative calm , with Russia not launching any large-scale air attack. Apparently, it was stockpiling missiles and drones, which it then fired at Ukrainian cities on Wednesday night to Thursday.

The main target was Kyiv. Here they hit 30 sites in different parts of the city; at least 17 people were killed in total and more than 80 were injured.

Ukrainian air defence nevertheless performed quite well. It shot down 476 out of 496 drones (a success rate of as much as 96 percent), 32 of 34 Kh-101 cruise missiles, eight of eight Kalibr missiles, and four of four Kh-59 missiles. The only problem was the Iskander-M ballistic missiles (four of 34) and the Zircon missiles (zero of four).

It was precisely these that apparently caused the worst damage. In this video, a large crater can be seen in front of a heavily damaged apartment block.

Kyiv. This is what a russian strike on a so-called “military target” actually looks like. pic.twitter.com/zhnyhac7YX

The attacks also targeted civilian infrastructure; several images showed hit residential buildings and the main warehouse of the MOYO electronics retailer.

❗️Kyiv experienced one of the most massive attacks: the enemy struck residential buildings and civilian infrastructure with drones, ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as hypersonic "Zircon" missiles. 28 locations were damaged in the capital. Currently, there are 25 injured… pic.twitter.com/Gw245TAX1P

російські уйобки знищили головний склад магазину електроніки MOYO у Києві. Воєнні злочинці навмисно атакують українські цивільні підприємства. Вони за це боляче заплатять. Наступний гаджет, який я купуватиму, буде з MOYO. pic.twitter.com/aKdjtpw6CB

Auch heute Nacht massiver Terror gegen die ukrainische Hauptstadt Kyjiw Aus Rache für gezielte Angriffe auf Militäreinrichtungen & kritische Infrastruktur hat Russland in den vergangenen Stunden erneut Kyjiws Wohnhäuser bombardiert 11 Tote, 56 Verletzte. pic.twitter.com/x9ihudhHuy

Foreign minister Andriy Sybiha called on partners not to delay decisions on helping Ukraine’s air defence. “This is our main request to our partners after the night of horrors that Kyiv has lived through,” Sybiha said .