Attack on bridge creates traffic jams for Russian logistics

 ISW:

The July 17 Kerch Strait Bridge attack is likely having immediate ramifications on Russian military logistics in southern Ukraine. Footage and imagery published on July 17 and 18 show extensive traffic jams and accidents reportedly on the E58 Mariupol-Melitopol-Kherson City highway – Russia’s current main logistics line connecting Russia to southern Ukraine – at various points between Mariupol and Berdyansk, and in Kherson Oblast.[1] Russian occupation authorities claimed to have reduced traffic at Crimea-Kherson Oblast checkpoints near Chonhar and Armiansk following significant traffic jams in the morning.[2] Russian occupation authorities also advertised alternate routes and rest stops along them for tourists to drive from occupied Crimea through occupied Zaporizhia and Donetsk oblasts – rear areas in a war zone – to return to Russia.[3] Russian authorities also announced additional measures to mitigate resulting traffic jams and logistics issues, including a temporary road bridge next to the Kerch Strait Bridge, the reconstruction of a 60-kilometer stretch of road between Crimea and Kherson Oblast through Armiansk, and lowering security measures at the Kerch Strait Bridge checkpoints.[4] Russian authorities reopened one span of the Kerch Strait Bridge to one-way road traffic towards Russia on July 18, and plan to reopen the same span to two-lane traffic on September 15 and the whole bridge to road traffic in November.[5] Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated on July 18 that the Russian government is still developing measures to increase the security of the Kerch Strait Bridge, and Russian milbloggers continued to criticize the claimed Russian security failure to adequately protect the bridge.[6]

Russian forces conducted a strike campaign ostensibly against Ukrainian military objects in southern Ukraine in explicit retaliation for the Kerch Strait Bridge attack. The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) claimed that Russian retaliatory strikes hit port infrastructure in Odesa City and to have destroyed Ukrainian fuel storage facilities holding a combined 70 thousand tons of fuel near Odesa and Mykolaiv cities.[7] Ukrainian military officials reported that Ukrainian air defenses shot down all six Russian Kaliber missiles and 31 of 36 Shahed 131/136 drones targeting these areas, but that falling missile fragments damaged port infrastructure and a residential area in Odesa.[8] Russian milbloggers heavily criticized the Russian MoD for only targeting Ukrainian military assets in retaliation for Ukrainian military ”provocations” rather than targeting these assets as part of the war effort.[9] These complaints are consistent with prior milblogger criticisms to the same effect following other major military events, including the October 2022 Kerch Strait Bridge attack.[10] The Russian MoD also accused Ukrainian forces of targeting occupied Crimea with 28 drones overnight on July 17 to 18 and claimed that Russian air defenses and electronic warfare systems downed all 28 drones.[11]
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The attack on the Kerch Strait Bridge has created a strategic problem for Russia and its logistic efforts.  Russia does not appear to have the air assets it would need to bypass the bridge.  The Russian response to the attack looks weak and ineffective.

See, also:

Russia targets Ukraine's port of Odesa and calls it payback for a strike on a key bridge to Crimea

Ukraine said its forces shot down Russian drones and cruise missiles targeting the Black Sea port of Odesa before dawn Tuesday in what Moscow called “retribution” for an attack that damaged a crucial bridge to the Crimean Peninsula.

The Russians first sought to wear down Ukraine’s air defenses by firing 25 exploding drones and then targeted Odesa with six Kalibr cruise missiles, the Ukrainian military’s Southern Command said.

All six missiles and the drones were shot down by air defenses in the Odesa region and other areas in the south, officials said, though their debris and shock waves damaged some port facilities and a few residential buildings and injured an elderly man at his home.
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And:

 Ukraine Situation Report: Kyiv Claims Massive Russian Buildup Near Kharkiv

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"In the Lyman and Kupiansk direction, the enemy has concentrated a very powerful force - more than 100,000 personnel, more than 900 tanks, more than 555 artillery systems, 370 self-propelled guns,” Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for the Eastern Grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said during the nightly official newscast, the official state Ukrinform news agency reported Monday.

https://twitter.com/hdevreij/status/1681028706075123715

By comparison, Cherevatyi noted, “the largest number of Soviet troops in Afghanistan was 120,000."

The 100,000 troop number is bewilderingly large. While we cannot confirm it, even a significant portion of that figure would be highly concerning.
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And:

 Russia lacks counter-battery weapons – UK Intelligence

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Russia is suffering from a worsening shortage of counter-battery radars, especially its modern ZOOPARK-1M. Only a handful of the originally deployed ZOOPARK fleet are likely to remain operational in Ukraine."

Details: The UK intelligence reports indicate that in early July, there was evidence of another destroyed ZOOPARK-1M system near the 58th Combined Arms Army's operational area.
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And:

 Russia refuses to recognize its fragility: rift in Russian army real, and Russia's losses atrocious – UK Defence Secretary

And:

 Photos capture the crude cages Russian and Ukrainian crews are welding on their tanks and armor as a last-ditch defense

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Troops on both sides of the war have outfitted heavy armor with netting-like cages in what appears to be a last-ditch effort against growing threats like anti-tank missiles, small drones, and artillery. A retired US Army colonel said the configurations are Hail-Mary attempts to keep armor crews from dying in combat, but they can pose a major inconvenience when it comes to operations.

"It is a psychological thing that soldiers do in combat when they want to live," Gian Gentile, a former Iraq War tank commander and the current associate director of RAND's Arroyo Center, told Insider.

The fact that some troops feel the need to do this suggests an inability to counter growing threats to vehicle operations that clearly has crews concerned.

Videos and photos that have circulated around social media in recent weeks show that both sides have outfitted their tanks and armored vehicles with these crudely built cages, some of which are elaborate and cover much of the exterior, while others appear to be more simplistic and almost resemble bird or batting cages.
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And:

 Putin wanted his own version of NATO. Instead he has a failing alliance that has only made him look weaker since the invasion of Ukraine.

And:

 Ukrainians looking for missing troops are finding Nazi bullets, World War II-era trenches, and the bones of German soldiers on the battlefield

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Memory and Glory, a group looking for old war dead, joined up with the Ukrainian army to locate soldiers reported missing in action in the current conflict, the Times reported.

Already, the group has found more than 200 bodies from World War II, sometimes in the same trenches where the fighting is happening now, according to the outlet.

"When you dig into a trench, you find a trench from World War II," director Leonid Ignatiev told the Times.

Even the bones of German soldiers — previously lost to time — are being discovered. In one instance, the bones of a Nazi soldier were buried in a cemetery for German war dead, the Times said.

More World War 2 remnants were unearthed after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed last month.
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