Russian Troops Just Built A Pontoon Bridge Near Chernobyl

Commercial satellite imagery posted on social media on Tuesday appeared to show an oddity on the Ukraine-Belarus border: a military-style pontoon bridge at the Pripyat River—just 4 miles from the Ukrainian border, and 14 miles northwest of the No.4 nuclear reactor which infamously melted down in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

The bridge, reportedly situated at 51.5327, 29.86593, lies within the Exclusion Zone around the reactor which extends across the Ukraine-Belarus border. Today much of that zone can be visited relatively safely for a few days at a time. The reactor itself is encased in a sarcophagus called the New Safe Confinement designed to limit release of radioactive contaminants.

Currently, over 30,000 Russian troops drawn from all four armies of Russia’s Eastern Military District are conducting military exercise called Allied Resolve with Belarussian forces in central and southern Belarus.

Many analysts suspect is a pretext for positioning a large Russian force in Belarus for possible military action against Ukraine, particularly its nearby capital of Kyiv—at least, in the event Moscow decides to recourse to force against Ukraine.

Multiple pontoon bridge companies have been spotted mobilizing in Russia’s current military buildup, both in Belarus (see video below) and on Russia’s northern border with Ukraine.

Military analyst Rob Lee writes that three or more Russian pontoon bridge companies appear to have been deployed in Belarus.

Though Russia’s military did not announce a bridge-building exercise, a Telegram post by the Belarussian Ministry of Defense on February 12 notes: “In the Rechitsa area, motorized rifle units of the Russian Armed Forces repulse the air attacks of a mock enemy, work out the issues of maintaining survivability, withdrawing and occupying defensive lines, and crossing a water barrier.” [Emphasis added by author.]

A brief press release posted February 11 establishes that Russian Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear (CBRN) units participated in the exercise. However, they are described as practicing laying smoke screens to obscure ground forces from aerial observation and attack, not radiological defense mission.

Is the bridge useful?

GPS maps suggest the river is roughly 550-600 feet across at the bridge’s alleged location. A PMP truck-borne pontoon bridge can reportedly bear up to 60 tons when in a 745-foot long configuration, and can supposedly be set up in 30 minutes. That’s enough to bear the weight of a 50-ton T-72B3 main battle tank—though often with assistance from small boats bracing the bridge.

However, the utility of this specific bridge in a hypothetical operation against Ukraine is debatable. To be sure, Russia might seek to open additional vectors on which to advance towards Kyiv to the south besides the most convenient—and therefore predictable—approach down the P37/P02 highway.

But a road 1.5 miles southwest of the bridge seemingly offers a far more convenient alternate route to the border. Meanwhile the eastern bank of the Pripyat River, which the bridge appears situated to give access to, appears far more difficult to traverse due to marshy terrain slashed by more water obstacles. Overall, many more offroad miles would need to be traversed to reconnect with road networks leading into Ukraine, making ingress via this route far from obviously advantageous.

That said, winter conditions could lead to freezing that could make traversal easier now than at other times of the year.

Still, the pontoon bridge may be little more than the output of a military exercise seeking to enhance proficiency, despite its proximity to an infamous historical landmark. Rather than a bridge too far, it may simply be a bridge to nowhere.