Photo Shows Crimea Bridge Damage as Strike Deals Blow to Russian Logistics

New footage circulating online shows damage to a key transport route in Moscow-controlled Crimea, after Ukrainian forces said they had successfully targeted the Chonhar railway bridge.

Photos posted on Sunday and Monday visually confirm damage to the bridge, the U.S. think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Monday. In imagery available online, rail tracks believed to be on the bridge are visibly warped, with what looks to be a crater in the center of the structure.

The bridge links the Russian-controlled Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014, with Ukraine's contested southern Kherson region. It stretches from northern Crimea, connecting the Russian military logistics hub at Dzhankoi to the occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol, in the Zaporizhzhia region. Dzhankoi was previously described by the British defense ministry as one of "the most important Russian military airfields in Crimea" as well as a "key road and rail junction" vital for supplying Russia's troops in southern Ukraine.

On Saturday, Ukraine's military said it had carried out a successful strike on the bridge in the early hours of July 29. The statement did not provide additional details.

Russia did not publicly comment on the strike claimed by Ukraine's armed forces, and Newsweek has reached out to Moscow's Defense Ministry for comment via email. The Kremlin may have instructed Russian military bloggers, who are influential voices in shaping the Russian narrative in Ukraine, to "refrain from covering certain topics," the ISW said on Sunday.

Vladimir Saldo, the Russia-installed official heading up Moscow's rule in Kherson, said on Saturday that Ukrainian "militants" had attempted to "destroy the railway between the Kherson region and the Crimea, firing twelve long-range Storm Shadow missiles."

Saldo claimed all the missiles were intercepted by Russian air defenses, but that "fallen fragments of expensive foreign weapons" had slightly damaged some logistical infrastructure. He said that this had "already been repaired."

Russia blamed Kyiv for a previous strike that badly damaged the adjacent Chonhar road bridge in late June, saying Ukrainian forces had targeted the crossing with British-provided Storm Shadow missiles.

Moscow says the bridges at Chonhar and the Kerch Bridge, which joins Russia to Crimea, have all been targeted by Ukrainian attacks.

Kyiv's focus on the bridges has forced Russian forces to come up with new ways of delivering ammunition and supplies from Crimea to its forces in mainland Ukraine, Nataliya Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine's southern operational command, said as reported by Ukrainian outlet UNIAN on Monday.

"We continue to work on the destruction of what they have already stockpiled, and we are working to ensure that logistics do not allow them to restock," she said.

Kyiv has vowed to retake Crimea, and routinely targets Russia's Black Sea fleet bases in Sevastopol with unmanned vehicle strikes. Moscow's defense ministry often reports that its air defenses and electronic warfare have stopped drone assaults on Crimea that it blames on Ukraine.