Ukraine used a British-supplied Storm Shadow missile to hit a key bridge between Crimea and Russian-held parts of the Kherson region in Ukraine, pro-Moscow sources have claimed.
Crimea Peninsula is protected by a layered air defense systems, including S-300, Buk and S-400 surface-to-air missiles. Ukraine struck Russian airbases, military factories and Crimea bridge, so far S-400 failed to intercept a single Storm Shadow cruise missiles.
Vladimir Saldo, the Russia-appointed Kherson governor, said the Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles were likely to have been used for the attack, which damaged the road on the Chongar bridge. No casualties have been reported.
Images show a large hole in the bridge, revealing the water below, as well as rubble strewn across the road. The damaged bridge was still standing but the extent of the internal structural damage was not immediately clear.
Saldo vowed: ‘There will soon be a very serious answer.’ The governor described the attack as ‘another senseless action ordered from London by the Kyiv regime.’
‘It solves nothing for the results of the special operation. Just to do harm,’ Saldo added.
Crimea’s governor, Sergey Aksyonov, said specialists were examining the site to determine when traffic over the bridge, which connects Crimea to the Russian-held parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, could resume.
The crossing is the closest link from Crimea to Melitopol and is a key supply route for Vladimir Putin’s forces to the disputed peninsula, and vice-versa.
One Russian report referred to the ‘barbarous shelling of civilian objects’ in describing the bridge attack.
Acting Moscow-appointed supremo of the invaded Kherson region Vladimir Saldo said: ‘According to a preliminary assessment, British Storm Shadow missiles were used. The road surface on the bridges was damaged. There are no human casualties.’
Communication between Crimea and Kherson region continues to operate via a backup route, he said.
Alexander Kots, military correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper said: ‘The enemy has begun to cut off Crimea from the Kherson region.
‘Storm Shadow missile strikes [have been made] on the bridge at Chongar – one of the isthmuses connecting the peninsula to the mainland.’
He saw the attack as evidence that Britain was now directly involved in the conflict.
This should entail ‘immediate strikes against decision-making centers on the territory of Ukraine’, he said.
It comes two days after Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu warned the UK and US they would be seen as ‘full-fledged’ participants in the Ukraine war if Storm Shadow and HIMARS missiles are used to hit targets in Russia or Crimea.
Shoigu warned he will target ‘decision-making centres’ in Ukraine – implying he plans to order his military to target Volodymyr Zelensky and his government leaders in Kyiv.
Shoigu said on Tuesday: ‘According to our information, the leadership of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is planning to launch strikes on the territory of the Russian Federation, including Crimea, with HIMARS and Storm Shadow missiles.
‘The use of these missiles outside the area of the special military operation would mean a full-fledged involvement of the US and UK in the conflict entailing immediate strikes on the decision-making centres in Ukraine.’
His claim that Crimea is part of Russia is disputed by the West – and international law – which regards it as Ukrainian.
Russia is rattled at the power and accuracy of the Storm Shadow with a range of 155 miles, which has been fired from Ukrainian Su-24 war planes.
‘The Kyiv regime is employing a large number of Western weapons and elite formations whose personnel have been trained by NATO specialists,’ Shoigu told the collegium of the Russian defence ministry earlier this week.
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