The Bridge Battle In Southern Ukraine Is Escalating

Russian engineers are scrambling to repair a strategic bridge across the Dnipro River into occupied Kherson in southern Ukraine, a few days after Ukrainian artillery rendered the bridge impassable.

But the Russians aren’t taking any chances. At the same time they attempt to repair the Antonovsky Bridge on the southern edge of Kherson, they’re also deploying additional pontoon bridges—safely assuming that Ukrainian forces will continue targeting bridges as they shape the Kherson battlefield ahead of a widely-anticipated escalation of their counteroffensive in the region.

Holding Kherson, with its port facilities and pre-war population of 300,000, is central to Russian war aims. Liberating it is central to Ukrainian war aims.

But Kherson is surrounded by water. The city lies on the northwest bank of the wide Dnipro River, which winds south through Ukraine before emptying into the Black Sea. The Inhulets River, a tributary of the Dnipro, cuts south across Kherson Oblast and merges with the Dnipro east of the port.

There are three main bridges that connect Kherson to surrounding territory: the Antonovsky Bridge as well as a nearby rail bridge, plus the P47 highway bridge across the Inhulets just outside the city.

Ukrainian artillery—possibly 227-millimeter rockets from High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems or 155-millimeter guns firing Excalibur GPS-guided shells—in the last week at least temporarily knocked out all three bridges. The Antonovsky Bridge became impassable on Wednesday.

Russian engineers quickly erected a pontoon bridge alongside the damaged P47 bridge, then removed the pontoons after repairing the bridge. But a pontoon ferry near the damaged Antonovsky span—basically, a portion of a floating bridge that a boat pushes back and forth—remains the only way for vehicles to cross the Dnipro into Kherson.

That could change. Social-media users on Sunday spotted a construction crane on the Antonovsky Bridge—clear evidence the Russians are working to repair the span.

But the repairs might not last. It wouldn’t be all that difficult for Ukrainian gunners to strike the bridge again. It’s for that reason Russian forces are doubling down on their pontoons. Konstantin Mashovets, a Ukrainian analyst and army officer, reported a fresh Russian army pontoon unit heading toward Kherson via Melitopol.

The unit could join two existing pontoon formations maintaining crossings around Kherson. The Russian army traditionally builds back-up bridgeheads alongside all strategic bridges on terrain it controls, so that pontoon troops have easy access to lodgements on both banks.

The stakes are high. The Russian 49th Combined Arms Army, the main Russian force in southern Ukraine, oversees around 10 battalion tactical groups. Most of them are north of Kherson—and dependent on bridges for resupply. The Kremlin is rushing reinforcements to Kherson. They too count on bridges to reach the front.

Ukrainian generals clearly aim to starve the 49th CAA and block reinforcements in order to weaken Russian defenses north of Kherson—and tilt the battlefield in favor of Ukrainian brigades that, since May, slowly have been fighting their way south toward Kherson.