Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register KYIV, Aug 8 (Reuters) – Ukraine carried out long-range raids on Russian troop bases and two key bridges on the Dnipro River overnight, Ukrainian officials said on Monday. The strikes hit Russia’s only two crossings into the enclave of southern Ukrainian territory it has seized on the west bank of the massive Dnipro River, said Natalya Khomeniuk, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern military command. “The results (of the strikes) are rather respectable, hits on the Antonivskyi and Kakhovskyi bridges,” he said on television. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Ukrainian HIMARS strikes also hit several military bases in the Russian-held southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol in the early hours of the morning, killing troops and destroying equipment, the exiled mayor said. “According to preliminary estimates, a significant amount of military equipment was destroyed,” Mayor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram. Reuters could not immediately verify the accounts of officials on the battlefield. Ukraine’s defense minister said two weeks ago that 50 Russian ammunition depots were destroyed by US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, which Ukraine began using in June. Russia says it is conducting a “special military operation” in Ukraine to rid it of nationalists and protect Russian-speaking communities. Ukraine and the West describe Russia’s actions as unprovoked aggression. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Max Hunder. edited by Tom Balmforth and Nick Macfie Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
