Ukraine said on Tuesday that it had hit the bridge connecting Russia and the occupied Crimean Peninsula with explosives planted underwater, in its third attack on the vital supply line for Moscow’s forces since the full-scale war began in 2022.
Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, said on Telegram that its agents had mined the piers of the road and rail Crimean Bridge, also called the Kerch Bridge, and detonated the first explosive at 4.44 a.m. Tuesday. The whole operation took several months, it added.
The agency said it had used 1,100 kilograms of explosives which “severely damaged” the underwater pillars supporting the bridge.
Russian officials did not immediately respond to Ukraine’s claims. Traffic on the bridge has been temporarily suspended, the bridge operator announced on its official Telegram account.
I’m really liking this Ukrainian summer blockbuster. 🍿
God damn Ukrain is going hard this week
And good for them, these “peace talks” are a farce and the fact Trump’s position is that he’ll stop helping Ukraine if Russia keeps attacking is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
Looks like Zelensky actually has all the cards
Ukraine removing a significant portion of the Russian nuclear threat? trump didn’t even say ‘thank you’.
Zelensky suddenly throwing all the cards he was holding on the table.
I’m cautiously optimistic that this isn’t all his cards.
Bet you could’ve stopped that if you had some highly trained guard dolphins posted up around the area.
Russia could have stopped it if they agreed to a cease fire
Just leave Crimea and the rest of occupied Ukraine and focus on making your own country stable and strong.
I see Red Alert 2 reference.
I smile.
I upvote.
The only ways to have peace with a tyrant that denies your right to exist, are to surrender, or to soundly and overwhelmingly beat them. Anything else is just going to prolong the conflict and the suffering.
We did this with Nazi Germany, then we did it with Imperial Japan too, if we have to do it again with Soviet Russia it’s only because we didn’t do it thoroughly enough in 1991, because we keep trying to imagine there’s a nicer, easier, smarter, gentler way to do it using economics and politics maneuvering, by being patient and subtle and sneaky. There isn’t, it just delays the inevitable conflict while giving your enemies more time to prepare. Regimes like Putin’s do not acknowledge anything other than force, and anything less than force is a weakness to take advantage of, which they inevitably do.
We need to stop acting like oppression, despotism and dictatorship are valid ideologies and forms of government. They are not. We cannot tolerate them because they are simply intolerable. They are a violation of basic, fundamental human rights, they are not merely an “alternative to democracy” or “countries going their own way”. We must fight them not because we are trying to be the “world police”, nor because we alone are responsible for making the world a better place. We must fight them because it is absolutely required for self-preservation, because they deny and make a mockery of the very existence of the human rights and dignity that we consider non-negotiable, including our own. We are obligated to fight them not because of treaties and organizations like the UN or some international laws, those are all things we developed to codify the fact that we are obligated to fight them because it is in our own self interest and our own survival depends on it. Making the world a better place for everyone in the end is just a side benefit.
And soon we will have to do it to America
Can we please crowdfund about 4 tomahawks to just finish this stupid bridge. I get why we haven’t sent them, to expensive, proprietary tech, US preventing deep strikes and escalation. But for the love of God, four or so of some older ones can’t hurt us, and I just want to see Russian media coverage try to explain how it’s not a problem and nothing to see here. Plus, Russians in Crimea will absolutely shit if the whole thing blows up.
Given the recent announcements that countries like Germany have given Ukraine the ok to use their long range weapons against targets inside Russia I think it’s just a matter of time before we see this happen.
Frankly I was wondering why the bridge wasn’t attacked very quickly after that announcement was made. But with this report of the underwater sabotage I think it now makes sense. This underwater explosion likely took a long time to plan and carry out, and Ukraine probably wanted to see the results of it before launching any long range strikes on the bridge.
If there are other underwater explosives that have already been planted then I’d expect to see them detonated as well. After that then Ukraine might very well launch long range missiles to target the section(s) of the bridge that have now been weakened.
probably wanted to see the results of it before launching any long range strikes on the bridge
Maybe get them to show their hand with regards to the repair resources/ facilities.
possibly an attrition tactic? If they completely destroy the bridge, then Russia might just abandon it and transport stuff there via plane/boat instead. Damaging it just enough that it’s cheaper to fix than to set up a new supply chain, over and over, could be more costly in the long run, and regularly divert construction resources. Not to mention the impact that constantly disabling the bridge could have on Russian civilians in the area - i.e. “how is Ukraine always damaging this bridge?”
Could also be psychological - having the bridge there and hitting it over and over and over sends a pretty clear message.
I think its largely psychological/ strategic.
Show you can strike the bridge, you show the enemy they can be struck, they need to dedicate more resources to defending it.
Also, actively destroying the bridge would be a huge knock to Putin’s ability to maintain appearances.
Finally, actually disrupting the bridge would be good tactically. But thats proving harder to do. This is the third attempt?
Honestly I was surprised it wasn’t pre-wired with explosives or some way to ensure rapid disassembly in case of invasion.
Seems like a no-brainer, but I’m sure that would be prohibitively expensive due to shelf life and stability of explosives, and maintainence for any mechanically coupled systems.
Hindsight is usually 20/20
Because the bridge was built by Russia after its annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Russia built the bridge after it invaded Crimea in 2014 by the way
Switzerland used to have all their bridges wired to blow. They should probably get back on that :/
No cigar unfortunately. Bridge was reopened immediately after.
If this is not added leverage against Russia on the negotiations in Istanbul, the Ukrainians might be up to something again. It is their MO to wreck the Russian rear before conducting an offensive.
Its funny as I think this bridge has been damaged before. I bet bridges in moscow are not getting proper maintenance but they will work on this one. Money for war but not for public infrastucture.
