The Crimean Bridge — an Inevitable Attack
Not missiles but a clever, carefully timed double whammy
A long time coming
Those who follow me will know that I first wrote about this 19 km long strategic target way back in March and speculated on the use of Harpoon or Naval Strike missiles to take it down.
Well, it’s happened. But not with missiles it seems.
What happened?
It seems that a cargo truck exploded on the roadway just as a train of oil tanker wagons was passing on the parallel rail bridge.
The road section collapsed and the train caught fire.
If it has been done using conventional explosives and not missiles then that heads off any argument about ‘Western’ missiles being used to attack a Russian target.
Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) said: “At 06:07 Moscow time today [03:07 GMT], an explosion was set off at a cargo vehicle on the motorway part of the Crimean bridge on the side of the Taman peninsula, which set fire to seven fuel tanks of a train that was en route to the Crimean peninsula.
“Two motorway sections of the bridge partially collapsed.”
Crimean parliamentary speaker Vladimir Kontantinov blamed the explosion on “Ukrainian vandals, who have finally managed to reach their bloody hands to the Crimean bridge”.
Kontantinov claimed that the damage to the bridge would be “promptly restored, since it is not of a serious nature”. -BBC
Yes. it looks like a couple of truckloads of concrete should patch it up over the weekend.
Others have speculated that as there is no apparent surface shrapnel damage to the road surface then the explosives were placed below it.
About the Crimean (Kerch) Bridge
This is a special bridge, a bridge between Russia and the Crimea, a bridge Putin built after he annexed Crimea in 2014.
It’s called the Kerch Bridge and carries road and rail traffic (actually on two parallel bridges) across the Kerch Strait which joins the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
There had been many plans over the years for a bridge, but after Putin annexed the Crimea in 2014 it was built relatively quickly in 4 years by the company run by Arkady Rotenburg, a crony of Putin’s. Now he must surely be concerned about the loyalty of many of his cronies, having lost them their fortunes in short order.
Where is it?
Sovereignty and threats
Notwithstanding the issue of whether ‘Western’ weapons were used to hit the bridge, Putin will either claim:
a. It was an accident
or
b. It was a Ukrainian attack on Russian infrastructure.
In the case of (b) then where is the median line between Ukrainian Crimea and Russia’s Krasnodar oblast?
Putin clams that Crimea is already (and always has been) sovereign Russian territory.
It’s moot, but I just hope that Putin doesn’t use it as an excuse to open his threatened nuclear weapons offensive.
It’s a huge embarrassment.
And a worry to all those Russians still in Crimea with only airline flights to get them out.
Will he or won’t he?
About me: If you follow me I guarantee variety in your inbox with some unusual perspectives! I write on a wide range of topics including humor, tech, space, geopolitics and travel, together with daily news events and the minutiae of my daily life living on a boat. Yes, I really do live on a boat (some readers don’t believe that). I also write about…
…a bridge too far, madmen and red buttons
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