Russia Hits Kyiv Military Arms Depot Sent From Poland, Ukraine Blows Up Strategic Kherson-Crimea Railway For Moscow

Russian military vehicle destroyed in Kherson. (Wikimedia Commons/armyinform.com.ua)

JAKARTA - Ukraine dealt a significant blow to Russia by blowing up a strategic railway line for transport and logistics, British military intelligence said on Wednesday.

The agency said the railway linking Russian-occupied Kherson in southern Ukraine with Crimea was highly unlikely to function after the Ukrainian attack on Russian ammunition trains.

Russian troops are likely to repair the rail line in a few days, though it will remain a vulnerability for Russian troops and their logistical supply route from Crimea to Kherson, according to an intelligence update on Twitter.

It said Russia had publicized the recently erected ferry crossing, to replace the damaged Antonovsky Bridge over the Dnipro river in Kherson as for civilian use. However, the Russian military will almost certainly use it for troop movement and logistical supplies.

There will likely be an increase in civilians trying to flee Kherson and the surrounding area, as hostilities continue and food shortages worsen, according to the update.

Meanwhile, Russia on Wednesday said it had destroyed a foreign arms depot near the city of Lviv, in a rare attack in western Ukraine.

"A high-precision long-range air-launched missile near the city of Radekhiv in the Lviv region destroyed a storage base with foreign-made weapons and ammunition sent to the Kyiv regime from Poland," the defense ministry said in a statement.

The statement did not specify what types of weapons were destroyed in the attack in Radekhiv, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) northeast of the regional capital Lviv.

Furthermore, the ministry said it also destroyed four warehouses containing rockets, artillery weapons and ammunition in the southern region of Mykolaiv and the eastern region of Donetsk.

Having abandoned attempts to seize the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, Russian forces have instead focused on capturing the eastern Donbas, with later attempts to occupy the south.

In recent weeks the Ukrainian army, backed by Western-supplied long-range artillery shipments, has been trying to mount a counter-offensive to retake southern Kherson.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that despite arms supplies from the West, his country's forces have not been able to overcome Russia's superiority in heavy weapons and manpower.

"This is felt in the fighting, especially in the Donbas. It's just hell there. Words can't describe it," said President Zelensky.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine on February 24, sparking a conflict that has killed thousands, left millions homeless and sparked fears of a global food crisis over the blocking of grain exports.