2023-07-17 15:22:33
This is a highly symbolic setback for Moscow. The strategic Crimean bridge, connecting Russia to the peninsula annexed by Vladimir Putin in 2014, was once again attacked by Ukrainian forces overnight from Sunday to Monday. Two civilians, a man and a woman who were driving, were killed there, and their daughter injured, the Russian Investigation Committee said in a statement on Monday July 17.
The attack was carried out by Ukrainian special services and naval forces using “naval drones”, a source in the Ukrainian security services (SBU) told AFP. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed on Telegram that the attack was carried out by Ukraine. The Russian Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAK) said in a statement that it took place at 3:05 a.m. and confirmed that it was carried out by “naval surface drones”.
Direct access from Russia
The Crimean Bridge, 18 kilometers long and inaugurated in 2018, consists of two parallel structures, one reserved for road traffic and the other for rail traffic. The Ukrainian attack caused significant damage to the road section of the bridge, the only one that connects Russia to the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea annexed by Moscow in 2014, and which serves as a rear base for the Russian army fighting in Ukraine.
On Telegram, the Crimean-24 public television channel posted a video of the bridge showing a partially collapsed portion of the road section. The railway section was not damaged and traffic resumed there in the morning, Crimean authorities said. Ferry services to cross this arm of the sea have also resumed, motorists wanting to cross the strait being called upon to use them.
“This bridge is highly strategic because it allows direct access from the western part of Russia to the Crimean peninsula, explains General Jérôme Pellistrandi, contacted by L’Express. It allows on the one hand to close the sea of Azov, on the other hand to ensure territorial continuity between the western part of Russia and Crimea without passing through Ukrainian territory.”
“Additional humiliation”
For General Pellistrandi, “this new strike on the bridge makes it possible to cut logistical flows which go from Krasnodar to Sevastopol, in Crimea. It is therefore a severe blow to Russia. On the Ukrainian side, destroying the Kerch bridge is a good shot,” he said. However, this attack seems essentially symbolic for Ukraine, analyzes the editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine.
“A priori, only the road bridge was damaged. So there remains the railway bridge”, indicates Jérôme Pellistrandi. Moreover, “the destruction of the bridge is not extensive enough. In a few weeks, the Russians will have restored it,” he says. This attack nevertheless remains “an additional form of humiliation, because it means that this bridge remains within reach of Ukrainian military actions”, interprets the general.
The viaduct, which spans the Kerch Strait, had already been damaged on October 8 by a powerful explosion attributed by the Russian authorities to a truck booby-trapped by the Ukrainian secret services. The concrete bridge, built at great expense on the orders of Vladimir Putin, was then put back into service. The Russian president himself went to the Crimean bridge last December, driving a Mercedes.
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