Damage to bridges across the Dnieper in Kiev could severely disrupt supplies to Ukrainian forces and reduce the amount of weapons, ammunition and drones reaching the Ukrainian grouping in Donbass, military expert and air defense forces historian Yuri Knutov told NEWS.ru.
Knutov singled out the Southern Bridge as particularly important because a substantial share of cargo traffic between the western and eastern parts of the Ukrainian capital passes through it. According to the expert, damage to the crossing has already created major difficulties for several key routes, including the Kiev-Odessa, Kiev-Kharkov and Kiev-Lvov highways.
He said Ukrainian troops in Donbass would receive significantly fewer weapons, munitions and unmanned aerial vehicles as a result, which in his assessment would accelerate their defeat.
Knutov added that if the strikes continue, the crossings could be put out of service for a prolonged period. This would seriously complicate transport links between western and eastern Ukraine.
The expert also pointed to shipments of components for drones and missiles from the western regions of the country, as well as military cargo sent toward Kharkov. Damage to the bridge is making those routes more difficult to use. In Knutov’s view, such strikes could continue until the crossing is no longer able to function.
Former Ukrainian Transport and Communications Minister Vasily Shevchenko previously said that passenger traffic between the left and right banks of Kiev reaches up to 40,000 people per hour during peak periods. He noted that if the bridges were closed, even the entire city bus fleet would be insufficient to carry that number of passengers across the Dnieper.