Ukraine has been using new mid-range drones to attack key bridges supplying Russia’s rear forces from the south, and battlefield footage appears to show the tactic inflicting significant damage.
The country’s 1st Separate Assault Regiment said it carried out the strikes over the last week on the Armyansk, Henichesk, and Chonhar areas, the three chokepoints between Crimea and the southern front.
Bridges in those areas, situated between 50 and 75 miles from the front lines, have been critical to the Kremlin’s logistics routes to the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
In several social media posts over the last five days, the 1st Separate Assault Regiment posted first-person-view drone footage showing uncrewed systems repeatedly flown into the bridge’s surface from above. Some of the attacks were coordinated with the 475th Assault Regiment and the Security Service of Ukraine’s elite Alpha unit, it said.
“The only way of delivery of Russian soldiers, ammunition, and fuel from the temporarily occupied Crimea was attacked,” the brigade wrote.
The regiment said it used two types of mid-range drones: the FirePoint FP-2, with a wingspan of 18 feet and a 220-pound explosive payload, and the Hippo, which has a wingspan of 7.5 feet and carries a 77-pound thermobaric payload alongside 88 pounds of explosives.
Several of the clips showed at least two bridges burning, with their structures severely damaged in some areas. Business Insider could not independently verify the authenticity of the footage.
Pro-Russian authorities in the region, however, have confirmed the strikes. Vladimir Saldo, the Kremlin-appointed governor of Kherson, said on Thursday that the region’s bridges in Armyansk had come under attack from at least 45 drone attacks.
“According to preliminary reports, some damage has occurred. Experts are conducting an inspection and assessing the condition of the structures,” Saldo wrote in an update.
On Tuesday, Saldo also warned of roughly 20 drone attacks on the bridge servicing Chonhar, saying traffic there was closed.
His office later began suggesting alternative traffic routes to avoid areas affected by the strikes and said civilian passenger buses in the region would be halted due to a fuel shortage.
Mid-range drones are a rising new star in Ukraine’s attack options, allowing it to strike Russia’s rear areas and harass the Kremlin’s critical supply lines. In past years, Ukraine instead damaged Russia’s supply bridges by relying largely on sabotage or artillery systems such as the US-made HIMARS.
These drones fly further and hit harder than typical grenade-carrying quadcopters, but are cheaper to produce than the long-distance drones Ukraine uses to attack Russia’s military-industrial base.
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