$600 drones disrupt Russian supply routes near the Ukrainian border

Ukraine has stated that it destroyed two bridges inside Russia using a couple of inexpensive drones to target stashes of mines and ammunition hidden by Russian forces.

The Ukrainian military reported that the two bridges near the border with Ukraine’s Kharkiv region were utilized by the Russian military to resupply their troops. Due to their strategic importance, the bridges were mined – enabling the Russian military to potentially destroy them in the event of a sudden Ukrainian advance.

 

It is common for an army under attack to destroy bridges, roads, and other key infrastructure within its own territory to hinder enemy advancement. Ukraine employed this strategy in the early days of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, destroying bridges on roads leading towards Kyiv.

This action delayed the Russian advance and protected the Ukrainian capital. In the case of the two bridges in Russia, the Ukrainian military discovered the caches of mines and used this information to their benefit.

Ukraine’s 58th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade, which carried out the operation, informed CNN that they decided to investigate the bridge further after detecting unusual activity around it. “It became evident that something was occurring there. We couldn’t fly a regular reconnaissance drone under the bridge as the signal would simply vanish, so we deployed a first-person-view drone equipped with fiber optics,” a brigade representative told CNN.

A video captured by the drone shows it approaching the bridge and discovering a significant pile of anti-tank mines and other ammunition. A piece of fabric that appears to have been covering the stash is visible lying to the side. “We saw the mines, and we struck,” they added. The video ends abruptly when the drone hits the stash. Footage recorded by a second camera from a distance shows a large explosion. CNN has geolocated the bridge seen in the video to the Belgorod region in southern Russia, near the border with Ukraine.

“Following that, we decided to check the other bridge. We found it was also mined and we struck,” the brigade representative said, adding: “(We) saw an opportunity and took it.” The destruction of the bridges – and the audacious way Ukraine achieved it – is a rare piece of good news for Kyiv.

Ukraine is facing difficulties along the frontlines as Russian troops continue to advance while Russian President Vladimir Putin delays any ceasefire discussions. Simultaneously, Moscow continues to terrorize Ukraine’s civilian population with nearly daily deadly aerial assaults against cities across the country. Russia did not comment on the attacks against the bridges.

Cheap drones prove their value

The drones used in the attack cost between 25,000 and 30,000 Ukrainian hryvnias, or between $600 to $725, the brigade representative informed CNN. This makes the two attacks extremely cost-effective.

Destroying a bridge from a distance is not an easy task. Under normal circumstances, it would require expensive guided munitions delivered by a sophisticated system such as a missile launcher or aircraft. Ukraine previously stated that it had used the Western-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) to destroy bridges in Russia’s Kursk region.

These are expensive weapons – when Germany purchased three HIMARS launchers for Ukraine from the United States last year, it paid $30 million in total. Each missile costs tens of thousands of dollars. Nevertheless, the bridge attacks were not the first time Ukraine employed small and relatively inexpensive first-person-view drones to achieve significant results.