The possible pontoon loading area (46.631 32.756) near #Oleshky#Kherson (spotted by @DefMon3 & @OAlexanderDK) was empty during a satellite pass on Thursday. However, one small craft was captured moving up the #Konka river at 46.6378 32.7684. It's a busy place. Read on... 1/
Looking along the #Konka for the past week, I think there was another pontoon hidden to the east of the launch point in the marsh on 2022-08-02 at 46.6362 32.7709. It's SPOT imagery, so it's not super sharp, but it looks like a pontoon measuring about 60x12m and small boat. 2/
Here are three views of the same area of the marsh. It's pretty clear that something was there on Aug 2nd, but not Aug 4th or July 27th. Might be another area to watch to see if pontoons are stored here regularly. 3/
Looking back, we can also find Russian military vehicles in various locations over the past week. Here's an overview of where they've been seen near #Oleshky. I think they're stationed near the base of the bridge, and in the industrial area east of the pontoon launch point. 4/
Just south of the #antonovskybridge, around 46.6341 32.7244, the Russians have a camp, with a visible tent, vehicles, and fighting positions. They likely occupy the buildings as well. 5/
700m east of the pontoon launch point we see a large vehicle - possibly a truck carrying a pontoon - approaching a warehouse at 46.6340 32.7667. Possible storage? 6/
Other vehicles recently seen about 700-1000m east of the pontoon launch point. 7/
@DefMon3@OAlexanderDK Looks like @Satellogic had an image 3 minutes earlier and helped me find where the boat launched from (46.6327, 32.7580). It came from right next to the pontoon launch point.
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Imagery from 7 August confirms that there are at least *4* pontoon ferries active around Kherson in the #Dnipro and Konka rivers. All four were visible at the same time today. Some context. 🧵1/
Sentinel-2 imagery from 7 August over Kherson was clear and showed all four pontoons in different locations at the same time. 2 were in use at the #AntonovskiyBridge, as expected, and two more were hiding in the Konka river, as discussed previously. 2/
The first hiding spot in the Konka river is at about 46.659 32.796. Pontoons can be seen stored here in Sentinel 2 imagery on 28 July, 2 August, and 7 August. This area was previously noticed by @DefMon3
Imagery from 1 August shows a Russian military ferry delivering 7 military vehicles near the rail bridge 5+ km upstream (46.6761 32.7902) of the known crossing point by the #AntonovskiyBridge by #Kherson. 3 vehicles appear ready to cross the other direction. 1/
Why are they moving military vehicles *here* instead of at the easier crossing point? What's the landing point on the south side of the river? There's no road directly across this point to support vehicles. 2/
One possibility is that they're ferrying them through the small Konka river to the highway by the city of #Oleshky. @DefMon3 and @OAlexanderDK highlighted a possible deployment point for the pontoons which was confirmed by 27 July imagery there. 3/
Update on #Darivka. @OAlexanderDK noticed that much of the imagery showed vehicles on or near the damaged bridge. It appears that small civilian vehicles have been using the bridge, despite the damage, while larger vehicles are using the pontoon bridge. 1/
Additionally, while comparing 27 and 30 June imagery we discovered a possible Russian military post located in a building in the village, based on visiting military vehicles and a tent set up behind the building at 46.7468, 32.8034 in #Darivka.
Since the bridge is still passable - will Ukrainian forces continue attempts to disable it? Will they strike at the pontoon that gets parked in the exact same spot over and over again? 🤔
On 23 July, Ukrainian forces struck the Daryivskyi bridge across the Ingulets river at #Daryivka, #Ukraine. Videos showed a pontoon bridge/barge providing an alternate crossing, with foliage used to camouflage the barge. 1/