Russia has closed the Manhush-Berdiansk highway in occupied southern Ukraine after Ukrainian drone strikes on its logistics, residents of occupied Mariupol report in local chat groups, Vilne Radio wrote on 31 May. Drivers attempting the route between the two occupied cities have been turned back. Some say the section has been shut for several days.
The closure is one of the first civilian-visible signs that Ukraine's accelerating campaign against Russian logistics in the south is reshaping daily life behind the line of contact.
Russian forces are now denying their own occupied roads to keep them clear of Ukrainian strike drones, and pushing the displaced traffic onto a single coastal alternative that local residents say is already jammed.
Cars routed onto Urzuf, where trucks are stuck
The Manhush-Berdiansk highway is part of the Russian-held land corridor along the Sea of Azov coast linking occupied Crimea to Russian-held Donetsk Oblast.
With the main route closed, drivers are detouring through the coastal village of Urzuf, where, according to Mariupol residents, large columns of trucks have backed up, and entry is reportedly restricted to those with local residency permits.
"We try not to drive unnecessarily, though we used to commute to Mariupol every day," a local resident wrote on social media.
412th Nemesis Brigade announces "massive hunt"
The closures coincide with a public announcement from the 412th Nemesis Brigade, one of Ukraine's most decorated drone units, that it has joined with the Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS) in a "massive 'hunt'" for Russian logistics in the south.
The brigade's priority targets are Russian military equipment and supplies in what Moscow calls its "deep rear."
The unit is using strike "wings" that have not previously appeared in public — fixed-wing platforms developed in close cooperation with the manufacturer, "ideally adapted" for the task, the brigade announced on its Facebook page.
The same brigade destroyed an estimated $300 million worth of Russian air defense equipment in a single week in January, Euromaidan Press reported at the time.
HUR's "fire-show" on same corridor
The route-closure reports come a day after Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) released video of drone strikes on Russian fuel tankers, trucks, and a trailer along the same Crimea-Donetsk corridor — between Berdiansk, Melitopol, and Dzhankoi.
"Fire-show continues. More to come," HUR reported on 29 May.
The town of Manhush itself has been a target: in April, Ukraine's Special Operations Forces struck the logistics base of Russia's classified "Rubikon" drone center there.
