Ukrainian forces struck the Russian-occupied port of Mariupol, Kyiv said on Wednesday, the latest in a series of drone attacks on logistics across a critical stretch of Moscow-held southern Ukraine connecting Russia to Crimea.
The attack on the port, which Ukraine’s military said plunged the site into a blackout, followed two strikes earlier this week on a bridge linking the Russian-occupied Kherson region to the Black Sea peninsula, which Moscow seized in 2014.
The attacks are part of a mounting Ukrainian campaign to target Russian logistics far behind the front line of Moscow’s four-year-long war, an effort analysts have said is helping slow its war machine.
The land bridge across southern Ukraine is a critical supply corridor for Russian forces as they attempt to grind forward along parts of the 1,200-km (746-mile) front line, amid signs of new Ukrainian resistance.
Key Port, Bridge Damaged
Kyiv’s drone forces said Ukrainian units had struck several key facilities at the Mariupol port, including energy and maintenance infrastructure, in an attack that has “significantly limited” the city’s capacity as a logistics hub.
A video posted on Wednesday by Ukraine’s 1st Azov Corps, which also participated in the operation, showed drone footage of ships, power stations and other structures coming under attack.
“Electrical substations, radar equipment, repair infrastructure, the control tower, and fuel and lubricant storage tanks were hit,” it said in a statement, adding that a sanctioned cargo vessel was also damaged.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s 1st Separate Assault Regiment said it had launched drone attacks on June 7 and 9 that struck the Chonhar bridge, one of two over-water crossings connecting Crimea to either Russian-occupied territory or Russia itself.
“We see all movements and totally control the enemy’s repair works,” it said on Facebook. “We are ready to make our long-range adjustments at any moment.”
Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed governor of the occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson region, said on Telegram that the bridge had been hit twice and traffic had been suspended.
Earlier in the war, Ukraine repeatedly targeted the bridge across the Kerch Strait connecting western Crimea to Russia’s Krasnodar region.
War Dynamics Shifting
This week’s attacks come after months of shifting battlefield dynamics in which Moscow’s momentum has slowed to a crawl, partly a result of Ukrainian strikes on critical logistical targets, including oil and military-industrial infrastructure inside Russia.
Ukrainian forces have also staged successful counterattacks on parts of the front line.
In a statement, Ukrainian open-source analysis group DeepState said Kyiv’s “blockade” of Russian supply lines across the occupied south could further hamstring Moscow’s battlefield efforts.
The attacks also send a powerful message, it added.
“The Defense Forces have demonstrated… the capabilities with which they can control everything that moves in the southern part of the occupied territory, in particular, from Crimea.”
Military installation hit
Ukrainian forces have carried out a missile attack deep inside Russia, hitting a major military plant overnight, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
He said FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles struck the drone and missile plant in the city of Cheboksary, in the Chuvash Republic, more than 900km (560 miles) from the front line. Local officials said three people were injured in a missile attack on the city.
Ukraine also said it had hit the Moscow-occupied port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, a Russian oil refinery in Samara and a “shadow fleet” oil tanker in the Black Sea.
In recent months, Ukraine’s military has intensified its drone strikes on key facilities across Russia.
Kyiv says energy sites are legitimate targets, as they allow Moscow to continue its war effort. However, missile attacks deep inside Russia have been rare.
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