Click to see full-size image. Via Twitter.
Ukraine struck the Chongar bridge, which links the Crimean Peninsula and the Kherson region, with British-made Storm Shadow missiles overnight into June 22, acting governor of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, announced.
“The road surface on the bridges has been damaged. There are no human casualties,” the governor wrote on Telegram.
The governor noted that the bridge would be open for vehicles shortly, adding that traffic between the peninsula and Kherson Region is not disrupted as it has been temporarily diverted to another route.
Videos from the scene of the strike showed minor damage on the bridge surface as well as the remains of Storm Shadow missiles.
The United Kingdom announced the delivery of Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine in May. At the time, Western officials told CNN that the kingdom received assurances from Kiev that these missiles will be used only within Ukrainian sovereign territory and not inside Russia.
The Storm Shadow is an Anglo-French low-observable, long-range, air-launched cruise missile developed since 1994 by Matra and British Aerospace, and now manufactured by MBDA. It features a GPS-aided inertial navigation system with a terrain profile matching system. For terminal guidance, the missile is equipped with an imaging infrared scene-mapping area correlator system.
The maximum range of the Storm Shadow is 560 kilometers. However, it is thought that Ukraine received the downgraded export version with a range of 250 kilometers. The Ukrainian Air Force has reportedly integrated the 1,300 kg cruise missile on its Soviet-era Su-24 fighter bombers.
Russian air defenses have already intercepted dozens of Storm Shadow missiles. A number of Ukrainian Su-24s which were modified to launch the long-range cruise missile were also either shot down in aerial combat or destroyed on the ground in missile strikes.
The strike on the Chongar bridge comes as Ukrainian troops are struggling to advance along the front in the Zaporozhye and south Donetsk sectors more than two weeks into their so-called spring counteroffensive. In recent days, Kiev forces stepped up shelling on Russian-held Kherson and reports of a near crossing operation over the Dnipro River were shared by several Russian and Ukrainian news sources. Ukraine may have struck the bridge to weaken Russian supply lines in Kherson before crossing the river.
