Ukraine’s counteroffensive strategy includes targeting Chongar and Henichesk bridges – ISW 

This is stated in the ISW report.

On August 6, the Ukrainian Defense Forces targeted two crucial road bridges used by the Russian invaders to connect occupied Crimea with the Kherson region. As a result, the Russian troops were forced to redirect their road traffic from shorter eastern routes to longer western ones.

Kherson Oblast occupation administration head Vadimir Saldo claimed that Ukrainian forces launched 12 missiles at a road bridge across the Henichesk Strait connecting Henichesk district to the Arabat Spit and that Russian air defenses intercepted nine of the missiles. Crimean occupation head Sergei Aksyonov claimed that Ukrainian forces launched two missiles at the bridge and that one missile made it through Russian air defenses and damaged the roadbed of the road bridge.

Russian sources claim that Ukrainian forces used Storm Shadow cruise missiles for the strikes. However, it's not confirmed if Russian forces intercepted these missiles.

Aksyonov announced that repair work is underway at the Chonhar bridge and that Russian officials will reroute all traffic through the Armyansk and Perekop checkpoints along the M-17 (Armyansk-Oleshky) and T2202 (Armyansk-Nova Kakhovka) highways. The Crimean occupation transport ministry announced that all traffic through the Dzhankoy checkpoint along the M-18 highway is closed but that traffic along the Kerch Strait bridge and the Kerch Strait ferry crossing is operating normally.

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) suspended civilian entry to the Arabat Spit as of July 31, and Russian officials have not commented on the status of traffic along the Henichesk-Arabat Spit GLOC.

The damage to the bridge across the Henichesk Strait may force Russian occupiers to redirect military transport from Arabat Spit to longer western routes between occupied Crimea and the Kherson region.

The M-17 highway passes through Armyansk before branching at a junction with the T2202 highway to the north and continuing to the northwest, meaning that most if not all Russian road traffic between Crimea and Kherson region will have to pass along or very close to one 20km section of the M-17 between Ishun and Armyansk, the report says.

"This major bottleneck in Russian GLOCs will likely pose significant disruptions to logistics and chances for delays and traffic jams. It is unclear how quickly Russian officials will be able to repair the Chonhar bridge and it is equally as unclear if Russian officials have repaired the Chonhar railway bridge that Ukrainian forces struck on July 29," the report said.

Restoring the damaged bridge across the Henichesk Strait will take much longer. Russian routes along the T2202 highway northwest of Crimea, particularly the roads south of Nova Kakhovka, are closer to Ukrainian positions in the upper Kherson region, making them vulnerable to Ukrainian artillery fire from the western bank of the river.

"Russian forces likely can reduce risks from Ukrainian indirect fire in this area by taking slower and less efficient village roads northeast of Chaplynka, but at the cost of slower and more complicated logistics support," the Institute writes.

Ukrainian strikes on bridges are a part of the Ukrainian interdiction campaign

Experts believe that Ukrainian strikes on bridges along critical Russian GLOCs are a part of the Ukrainian interdiction campaign focused on setting conditions for future decisive counteroffensive operations. 

A Russian blogger associated with the Wagner PMC argued that the August 6 strikes show that Ukrainian forces are methodically trying to cut off the Russian group in southern Ukraine and disrupt its logistics, similar to the Ukrainian interdiction campaign during the Kherson counteroffensive.

He also noted that the Russian defenses on the western (right) bank of the Kherson region were destroyed in a matter of days after several months of logistics strikes by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and expressed fears that the situation may repeat itself.

The Institute believes that “Ukrainian strikes on the eastern crossing points will likely disrupt the transport of Russian personnel, materiel, and equipment from occupied Crimea to critical Russian defensive operations in western Zaporizhia Oblast and the Zaporizhia-Donetsk Oblast border area for some, undetermined, time.”

"Ukrainian forces appear to be also expanding their interdiction efforts to target Russian naval targets involved in Russian logistics in the Black Sea as ISW has previously observed," the report concluded.

It is added that Ukrainian officials have regularly declared their commitment to a campaign to intercept Russian military facilities in order to weaken the invaders' logistics and defense capabilities and create favorable conditions for future counteroffensive. 

• On Sunday afternoon, August 6, 2023, the Defense Forces of Ukraine missiles damaged the Chongar Bridge and the bridge over the Henichesk Strait, which connects the city of Henichesk with the Arabat Spit. The Armed Forces of Ukraine officially confirmed these strikes.