Russia-Ukraine Flash Report for 06 AUG 2023 09:30 PDT - Three Down, Two To Go (Patreon)

During my four hours of sleep, Ukraine launched multiple cruise missiles at three bridges that connect occupied Crimea to occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

The road bridges at Chongar and the road bridge at Henichesk, severely damaging all three. The Ukrainian strikes targeted the embankment/abutment regions on three bridges, with one miss, but that bridge received a center strike.

Traffic is suspended on all three structures which, based on the previous strike at Chongar, will be out of service for weeks. The bridge at Henichesk is likely out of service for months.

The Crimean (Kerch) Bridge only has one functional lane of travel and the railroad bridge is not fully restored, only used for "light" trains since reopening in May 2023. The railroad bridge at Syvash, also known as the Chongar railroad bridge is also out of service and under repair.

The last two land crossing between Crimea and the rest of Ukraine are at Armiansk, but these are minor crossings that create a 200 kilometer detour into areas within range of HIMARS.

The strikes came less than 12 hours after the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that they had destroyed Ukraine's capabilities to launch Storm Shadow and French SCALP missiles.

Russian engineers can build pontoon crossing at these locations but they won't match the traffic capacity.