Explosions Rip Through Belgorod Bridges After Drone Attack

Ukraine’s 58th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade recently destroyed two bridges inside Russia’s Belgorod region in a spectacular display of battlefield ingenuity. The strikes were achieved using cheap, first-person-view (FPV) drones, whose role in the war is increasing by the day.

The brigade was investigating the area around the bridges, where caches of mines and ammunition were hidden under the structure, near the border with Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. A video showing the attacks was released by the brigade in an official statement.

Bridges Near Kharkiv Used for Russian Resupply

“Ukrainian intelligence learned that these bridges were used to supply ammunition to the occupiers in the Russian occupied areas of Kharkiv,” the brigade said. The Russian military had mined the bridges and prepared them to blow up to prevent the Ukrainian army from advancing, officials added.

This is a defensive measure Russia has taken before. Ukrainian forces destroyed bridges leading to the capital Kyiv in the first days of the full-scale invasion in February 2022 to halt the Russian advance and protect the city. Ukrainian authorities are now waging a counter-offensive in Kharkiv and have been rolling back Russian gains around the city.

Closer inspection of the first bridge by the 58th Brigade revealed the weapons cache hidden below it, after standard Ukrainian drones were unable to reach under the structure with their remote-controlled devices.

“The drone was practically without visual contact with the controller, so we sent a guy with an FPV [first-person-view] drone with a fiber optic connection to the target to check,” the unit’s representative told CNN.

“We saw the mines, and we struck,” the brigade representative said. The weapon was packed with explosives and detonated in a huge blast.

CNN was able to geolocate the first bridge to the Belgorod region in Russia, which borders Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. A second camera near the bridge captured the explosion from a distance, with a second drone being deployed for this purpose. This second drone was also loaded with explosives and set off an even bigger explosion after the first strike.

Cheaper than Smartphones

In total, four FPV drones were used for the two attacks. This is not cheap, but it is significantly less than it would have cost Ukraine to send a missile or bomb. Each drone was worth 25,000 to 30,000 Ukrainian hryvnias, the brigade said. This is equivalent to $600–$725, a fraction of the cost of any guided missile or precision bomb.

In fact, the Ukrainian military had to use HIMARS rockets to strike bridges and other targets in Russia’s Kursk region, hundreds of miles east of the Belgorod bridges. These systems have been instrumental in disrupting supply lines from Russia to the frontline in recent months. But HIMARS rockets are vastly more expensive. A full launcher with six rocket pods is worth several million dollars, while an individual rocket can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

FPV Drones are Increasingly Important

FPV drones have become increasingly important in the war, providing Ukraine with a way to attack inside Russian territory with drones often costing less than a smartphone. “These types of operations show how even modest technology can achieve outsized results when used creatively,” military analyst Mykola Bielieskov wrote to The Cannon.

In June, Ukrainian forces used small drones smuggled near Russian airfields to destroy or damage dozens of Russian military aircraft.

In early August, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was developing an FPV drone capable of carrying a 2-pound warhead with a 40-mile range. There are many companies involved in the project, he added.

Ukraine has had some success using FPV drones to disable air-defense radar, providing cover for artillery strikes.

Cost-Effective Weapons Make a Difference

Ukraine is under pressure to use its limited stock of Western-supplied weapons in the most efficient way possible. At the same time, Moscow is grinding forward in eastern Ukraine with its numerical superiority, while also pounding Ukrainian cities with near-daily missile and drone strikes.

In early August, Zelenskyy said Russia was preventing a ceasefire by continuing its military advance, despite the opportunity for negotiations. This is why the destruction of the Belgorod bridges was such welcome news for Kyiv, offering a glimpse of victory amid hard fighting. Russian officials have not yet acknowledged the attacks, but Kyiv is likely inflicting additional damage on Russia’s supply lines in the area.

The Belgorod attacks are another reminder of a key fact of modern war for Ukraine: it must improvise to survive. FPV drones, which are often made from commercially available parts and modified by Ukrainian volunteers, have emerged as one of the country’s most lethal weapons. “The value of these drones cannot be overstated. They allow us to achieve results that would otherwise require weapons we don’t have,” the 58th Brigade representative said.

With Ukraine at war, the message is clear: drones and other low-cost weapons offer the chance to compensate for Kyiv’s military disadvantages. In fact, the hits against the bridges in Belgorod have a larger symbolic value that offers a sliver of hope for Ukraine against all odds.