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Slovyansk rail bridge destroyed as Russia advances
Summary
A retrospective on 29 April 2022, when satellite imagery showed a key crossing over the Siverskyi Donets had been hit, days after strikes elsewhere in Ukraine.
What happened to the rail link between Slovyansk and Lyman on 29 April 2022? According to Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, a Russian air strike destroyed a large railway bridge carrying the line across the Siverskyi Donets river between the two towns.
The strike followed reports from US Defence Department officials that Russian forces appeared to be advancing towards Slovyansk and Baranivka.
Strikes in the preceding days
The bridge attack came after a run of strikes. On 28 April 2022, two major explosions hit Kyiv as Russia carried out missile strikes during a visit to the city by UN Secretary-General António Guterres. At least ten civilians were injured, and a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist was killed.
On 27 April 2022, Russia said it had struck 59 Ukrainian weapon facilities overnight, including a depot in Zaporizhzhia Oblast that it said stored weapons from the United States and Europe. The same day, the Ukrainian Air Force hit the Kherson TV tower with a missile, temporarily forcing Russian television off air in occupied Kherson Oblast. Russia reported shooting down a Ukrainian drone over Kursk Oblast, while explosions and an ammunition depot fire were reported in Belgorod Oblast. Ukraine described the blasts as payback and karma.
Rhetoric and regional alarm
On 27 April 2022, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Russia could strike military targets in NATO countries supplying arms to Kyiv, and that Britain was one of them. British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab called such threats unlawful and said they added to the pariah status of Vladimir Putin's regime. UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Russian forces must be pushed out of the whole of Ukraine, including territory captured eight years earlier; the BBC called it the clearest statement yet of Britain's war aims.
Also on 27 April 2022, Russia imposed sanctions on 287 members of the UK House of Commons, including Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle.
On 28 April 2022, Bulgaria urged its citizens to leave Moldova immediately by any available means of transport, citing a complicating situation there.
