The Significance of Ukrainian Forces Damaging A Key Bridge Near Melitopol

This is the second devastating attack on Russian troops and infrastructure around Melitopol in a few days. 

It is reminiscent of Ukrainians' damaging supplies, bridges and roads before their assaults on Kharkiv and Kherson a few months earlier and suggests Ukraine has identified the target for its next offensive, one that could split Russian occupied territory in half. JL 

Jared Malsin and Ann Simmons report in the Wall Street Journal:

Explosions damaged a bridge used by Russian forces to transport military hardware to the front lines in eastern Ukraine.The attack is the second of Melitopol in recent days after Ukraine’s military used U.S.-supplied long-range artillery to demolish a hotel housing Russian military personnel.  Ukrainian forces have been striking deep behind Russian lines in eastern Ukraine to break up Russian troops and cut Russian supply lines. Such attacks have been at the heart of offensives in which Ukrainian forces reclaimed swaths of territory.

Explosions damaged a bridge used by Russian forces to transport military hardware to the front lines in eastern Ukraine overnight, as Ukrainian officials hinted at a capability to strike deep in territory occupied by the Kremlin’s forces.

Ivan Fedorov, the exiled Ukrainian mayor of the city of Melitopol, said a bridge linking the city to the nearby village of Kostiantynivka had been attacked.

“It was this bridge that the occupiers were using to transport military equipment from the eastern front,” Mr. Fedorov said in a post on the Telegram messaging channel. “I am warning you. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are near. You will run away without looking back!”

The Russian-controlled regional administration said the supports of the bridge were damaged as the result of an explosion, causing the road bed to sag. Officials in the city described the incident as “an act of sabotage.” Both car and pedestrian traffic were suspended on the bridge as emergency services worked at the site, they said.

 

The attack is the second in the city of Melitopol in recent days after Ukraine’s military used U.S.-supplied long-range artillery to demolish a hotel housing Russian military personnel.

For months, Ukrainian forces have been striking deep behind Russian lines in eastern Ukraine to break up concentrations of Russian troops and cut Russian supply lines. Such attacks, including those by American-made Himars artillery, have been at the heart of a pair of offensives in which Ukrainian forces reclaimed swaths of territory from the Kremlin in northeastern and southeastern Ukraine.

Russia also blamed Ukraine for an attack in October that severely damaged a critical bridge linking Russia to the Crimean Peninsula, which was occupied by Russia in 2014.

The blasts in Melitopol show that Ukraine is determined to continue attacks on Russian forces and infrastructure used by the Russian military even during the winter months. 

On Tuesday, Alexander Bogomaz, governor of Russia’s Bryansk region, bordering Ukraine, reported shelling overnight in the city of Klintsy, where he said some missile parts had fallen onto the territory’s industrial zone after being shot down by Russia’s air-defense systems.

Some Western officials have warned in recent weeks that freezing conditions would slow the pace of the conflict, delaying further advances by Ukrainian forces in the east.

Separately, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia is preparing for further mass missile strikes on Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure. 

“The absence of massive missile strikes only means that the enemy is preparing for them and can strike at any time. Although it is obvious that even without light we know well where to shoot and what to liberate, Russia still hopes for blackouts,” he said in his nightly address to the nation on Monday.

Russia has launched waves of missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid since October, leaving millions of Ukrainians without power for long hours at a time. The attacks are part of a broader strategy to demoralize Ukraine’s civilian population after months in which Russian forces have lost ground in the war, Ukrainian officials say.

Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed leader of Ukraine’s occupied eastern region of Donetsk, told Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti on Tuesday that Kyiv’s defeat was imminent thanks to Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy facilities. 

Also on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that a pullout of Russian forces from Ukraine by year’s end was out of the question.

He said Kyiv needed to take into account “the realities that have developed,” including Russia’s absorption of new territories following the results of referendums that the West viewed as a sham.

“Without taking these new realities into account, any progress is impossible,” he said. 

Russian forces launched at least seven separate attacks on areas around the city of Nikopol in eastern Ukraine, according to Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk region. The attacks, using Grad MLRS missiles and heavy artillery, damaged more than a dozen residential and commercial buildings and power lines, Mr. Reznichenko said on his Telegram channel. There were no casualties, he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron was hosting a conference in Paris on Tuesday that aimed to steer more funding toward efforts to rebuild Ukraine. Representatives from 70 countries and international institutions will discuss how to provide urgent help to maintain access to water, food, energy, transport and healthcare in Ukraine throughout the winter, French officials said.

“With each victory of your country on the ground, Russia reacts cowardly with new strikes against electricity, gas or water-distribution infrastructure,” Mr. Macron said. “It is urgent to support the capacity of the Ukrainian people to resist,” he added. 

Mr. Zelensky, who addressed the conference by video link, said Ukraine needed around 800 million euros, equivalent to $843 million, in emergency aid for its energy sector.

About 500 French companies will meet separately with the French and Ukrainian leaders on Tuesday to discuss short-to-medium term investments to rebuild Ukraine’s infrastructure, the French officials added.