The Antonivka Road Bridge (), usually referred to as the Antonivskyi Bridge ( ), is a ruined

box girder bridge A box girder bridge, or box section bridge, is a bridge in which the main beam (structure), beams comprise girders in the shape of a hollow box. The box girder normally comprises prestressed concrete, structural steel, or a composite ma ...

on the

Dnieper The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...

river in

Kherson Kherson (Ukrainian language, Ukrainian and , , ) is a port city in southern Ukraine that serves as the administrative centre of Kherson Oblast. Located by the Black Sea and on the Dnieper, Dnieper River, Kherson is the home to a major ship-bui ...

Kherson Oblast Kherson Oblast (, ; ), also known as Khersonshchyna (, ), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in southern Ukraine. It is located just north of Crimea. Its administrative center is Kherson, on the northern or right bank ...

, southern

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. It became a flashpoint during the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, and was largely destroyed in November 2022.

Design and construction

The bridge had been planned since 1977. It opened on 24 December 1985. It was located in the town of

Antonivka Antonivka () can refer to any of several places in Ukraine: Rural settlements Kherson Oblast * Antonivka, Kherson Raion * Antonivka, Skadovsk Raion Villages Autonomous Republic of Crimea * Antonivka, Dzhankoi Raion Cherkasy Oblast * Antonivka, Lyp ...

Kherson Raion Kherson Raion (; ) is a raion (district) of Kherson Oblast, Ukraine. History Kherson Raion was created on 18 July 2020 as part of the reform of administrative divisions of Ukraine. The center of the raion is the city of Kherson. The city of Ole ...

and connected the town to the unincorporated settlement Dachi on Antonivskiy Island which is connected to

Oleshky Oleshky (, ), previously known as Tsiurupynsk from 1928 to 2016, is a List of cities in Ukraine, city in Kherson Raion, Kherson Oblast, southern Ukraine, located on the left bank of the Dnieper River with the town of Solontsi, Kherson Raion, So ...

via route E97 and another bridge over the Konka river. The Antonivka bridge was long and rested on 31 pillars.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

Russian capture

The bridge changed hands several times in February 2022 as

Russian forces The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military of Russia. They are organized into three service branches—the Ground Forces, Navy, and Aerospace Forces—two independent combat ...

attempted to establish a path from Russian-held

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

into central Ukraine. Ukrainian forces eventually lost control over the area on 26 February 2022 after fierce fighting, leaving several dead soldiers and destroyed military vehicles lying on the bridge. In a daily intelligence report by the British

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

from mid-July 2022, the bridge was described as a "key vulnerability for Russian forces". Observers considered it to be the most important road crossing to the Russian-controlled areas west of the Dnieper river, the only other one being at the

Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant The Kakhovka Dam was a dam on the Dnieper River (also known as Dnipro) in Kherson Oblast, Ukraine, completed in 1956 and destroyed in 2023, which provided water for the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station (). The primary purposes of the dam were hyd ...

Ukrainian bridge attacks

On 19 July, the bridge was damaged by Ukrainian rocket fire, allegedly using

HIMARS The M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS ) is a light multiple rocket launcher developed in the late 1990s for the United States Army and mounted on a standard U.S. Army Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) M1140 truck frame ...

rockets supplied by the United States. Ukrainian forces struck the bridge again the next day. Russian forces struggled to repair the bridge and temporarily closed it to cargo traffic. The two strikes on the bridge, as well as remarks by Russian Foreign Minister

Sergey Lavrov Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov (, ; born 21 March 1950) is a Russian diplomat who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (Russia), Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2004. He is the longest-serving Russian foreign minister since Andrei Gromyko d ...

to the effect that the territorial gains in the Kherson region would be consolidated as the result of the use of wider-range weaponsto which class HIMARS belongsby Ukraine, were seen by observers as indicating that the region could become one of the focal points of fighting. At approximately 22:55 on 26 July 2022, the bridge sustained heavy damage following Ukrainian rocket fire using HIMARS, leading to the bridge being closed to passenger traffic. Some observers considered this third attack to be part of the counteroffensive announced earlier by Ukraine, which aimed to recapture the Kherson region.

TASS The Russian News Agency TASS, or simply TASS, is a Russian state-owned news agency founded in 1904. It is the largest Russian news agency and one of the largest news agencies worldwide. TASS is registered as a Federal State Unitary Enterpri ...

reported that the Russian air defence systems had intercepted the projectiles, but this was disputed by the Ukrainian forces and did not match visual evidence. Later reports and video footage from 27 July showed that the roadway surface on the bridge had been damaged; the surface was unusable for transit of heavy machinery. By 23 August, repairs to the bridge had been completed and it was again in use by Russian forces. On 25 August, satellite images showed no fewer than 16 damage holes on the southern end of the bridge, with vehicle traffic queuing on both sides as a temporary ferry services provided a crossing route across the Dnieper. A

pontoon bridge A pontoon bridge (or ponton bridge), also known as a floating bridge, is a bridge that uses float (nautical), floats or shallow-draft (hull), draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the support ...

was constructed by Russian forces on the eastern side of the bridge and was 60% completed as of 25 August. The crossing was struck again on 29 August amid reports of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, and strikes continued on the bridge and crossing throughout the closing days of August. By early September, Russian authorities said the bridge would be impassable for cars for weeks.

Russian retreat

By 11 November, with Ukrainian forces entering Kherson and Russian forces leaving it, part of the bridge collapsed; according to the prominent Russian military blogger Rybar, the Russians destroyed it. An adjacent pontoon bridge was used by Russian forces during their withdrawal from Kherson.

References