KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine struck a bridge in the occupied Black Sea region of Kherson on Saturday, targeting a Russian supply route as Kyiv prepares for a major counter-offensive, a Ukrainian regional official said.
The strike hit the Daryivskyi bridge across the Ingulets river used for supplies by Russian troops, days after a key bridge over the nearby Dnieper was hit, said an adviser to the region’s governor who is on Ukrainian-held territory.
“Every bridge is a weak point for logistics and our armed forces are skilfully destroying the enemy system. This is not yet the liberation of Kherson, but a serious preparatory step in that direction,” the official, Serhiy Khlan, wrote on Facebook.
The deputy head of the Russian-installed regional authority said the bridge had been hit by seven rockets from Western-supplied high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS), but that the bridge still worked, Russia’s TASS news agency said.
The assertions from both sides could not be independently verified by Reuters.
Ukraine has been using western-supplied long-range weapons to hit Russian supply lines and ammunition dumps in an effort to turn the tide in the war and prepare a counter-offensive in Kherson region.
Russia has captured swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine since it invaded on Feb. 24.
(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
