Russia on Saturday condemned Ukraine’s “terrorist attacks” on the Crimean bridge, insisting that they involved “purely civilian” infrastructure.
“We strongly condemn these terrorist attacks. The Crimean Bridge is a purely civilian infrastructure object,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
According to Maria Zakharova, Kiev’s “barbaric actions” have “no justification” and “will not go unchallenged”.
The Russian Defense Ministry and Crimean authorities reported at least two S-200 missile strikes against the bridge on the adjacent peninsula during the day.
This morning, the Russian military also reported the destruction of about twenty drones dropped over Crimea.
The attacks forced Russian authorities to halt traffic on the bridge twice in the same day, causing long queues along access points to the infrastructure.
Ukraine has repeatedly denounced Russia’s use of Crimea as a “military base” to launch attacks on the rest of Ukrainian territory and has classified the bridge connecting the 2014-annexed peninsula to Russian territory as “an unnecessary construction” .
Ukrainian forces have also managed to repel heavy Russian artillery attacks on several fronts, according to a report released last Saturday by the Ukrainian General Staff.
According to the report, the Russians carried out artillery and air strikes on virtually all fronts.
By land, the Russians tried to advance to Kupiansk, Bakhmut, Avdívka and Marinka, but were stopped by the Ukrainian defenders.
In addition, attacks were reported in the Sumi region, close to the border, where nine attacks took place during Friday, according to the regional administration via Telegram.
The Russian army, for its part, assured that they had improved their positions on the Kupiansk front, in the eastern region of Kharkov, where they repulsed eight enemy attacks in one day.
The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) also indicated in the daily report that “Russian forces appear to be stepping up offensive operations northeast of Kupiansk”.
The spokesman for the Eastern Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Sergey Cherevaty, admitted that Kiev has significantly strengthened defenses on the Kupyansk front in recent days, which according to ISW proves that the Russian Armed Forces may have been successful in their attempt to “add additional Ukrainian forces in that area”. to ease the troop situation in the south.
The Ukrainian advance in the south would have forced the Russians to reinforce detachments deployed in the Zaporizhia region, the latest British intelligence report said.
Source: DN
