In an attack that Russia would have widely expected, the Ukrainian military targeted the dual road and rail bridges at Chonhar that link Russian-occupied Crimea to the rest of Ukraine on the night of 21/22 June 2022.
Photographs and video posted on Telegram by the Kremlin-backed governor of occupied Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, show that the road bridge, at least, was heavily damaged, although not destroyed. Saldo played down the effects of the strikes, stating on Telegram, “We know how to repair bridges quickly; vehicle passage will be restored in the very near future.”
Saldo also stated that “According to preliminary estimates British Storm Shadow missiles have been used”, while The Times newspaper reported that a source in Ukrainian military intelligence had confirmed this. Again, it would have been expected by the Russians that infrastructure like bridges would be targeted by Ukraine’s UK-supplied Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles, although striking targets in Crimea is likely to heighten tensions between Russia and Ukraine’s Western allies. Moscow has even mentioned the potential use of nuclear weapons should its occupation of Crimea, which it illegally annexed in 2014, be threatened.
Ukraine’s targeting of the bridges at Chonhar is significant; only three main roads link Crimea to Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast and, of those, the road bridge at Chonhar links the Crimean peninsula directly to the strategic hub city of Melitopol in Russian-occupied Zaporizhia Oblast in southeastern Ukraine. Beyond these routes there is only the Kerch Strait Bridge that links eastern Crimea to Russia directly: a crossing built by Moscow after it annexed the peninsula in 2014 that was targeted and heavily damaged by a large truck bomb on 8 October 2022.
If Kyiv can strangle the logistical links between Crimea and Russian-occupied southeastern Ukraine, then the position of the Russian forces on the peninsula will become increasingly difficult to retain quite regardless of any Ukrainian counter-offensive, which would run into considerable Russian defensive lines. For the recent attacks on the Chonhar crossings to be more than symbolic, however, Ukraine would need to follow up its initial strikes to cause more comprehensive damage or to harass Russian forces repairing or still using the bridges.
Certainly for both sides it is clear that Russia’s continued occupation of Crimea is central to the credibility of the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin, making the peninsula territory of great strategic importance.
Peter Felstead
