The attack by naval drones disables the Kerch bridge again

Strategic Kerch bridge, better known as the bridge Crimea to connect this peninsula with the Russian Krasnodar region was disabled again in the early morning hours of this Monday. Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee claims that the attack was carried out by two naval drones, one of which completely destroyed one of the infrastructure pillars and the other rendered the other support useless. The explosions killed the couple who came from the Belgorod region, while his A 14-year-old daughter was seriously injured and she had to be hospitalized.

Moscow directly blames Kiev, calling the attack a “terrorist act”. In this sense, he points to the Ukrainian “secret services”, while the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zajárova, also accuses Washington and London of being behind the attack and of providing cover for what she calls a “terrorist regime”.

At the same time, agreement between Moscow and Kiev on the export of grain Ukrainians from Ukrainian ports, who arrived in Istanbul with the mediation of the UN and Turkey on July 22, 2022 and whose deadline expired this Monday, will not be renewed. This was announced by Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, who denied that such a decision had anything to do with the nighttime attack on the Crimean bridge. He pointed out that the agreement was suspended “until Russia’s demands are met.”

As a result of the attack, the bridge had to be closed to traffic, including the railway, although it was not damaged. The authorities assured that the trains would continue to run in the afternoon, but this was not the case. Crimea’s governor, Sergei Aksionov, urged tourists and locals to “use other access routes to the peninsula through new Russian territories,” referring to the southern part of the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, which the Ukrainian military frequently bombards as part of a counteroffensive launched in early June. Air connection from Crimea in any direction has been cut off since the beginning of the war. Axiónov also promised the continuation of ferry traffic.

significant damage

Photos and videos posted on social networks show two sections of the bridge’s roadway completely destroyed. “The section to Taman, in Krasnodar, was destroyed, and the section to Kerch, in Crimea, sank,” Telegram channel Shot wrote. In any case, the damage is clearly much more serious than that caused by the attack carried out on October 8, 2022. So it took months to get back to normal.

Road and rail traffic is still suspended. The ferry did not continue sailing, although Axiónov claims that there is enough food and fuel on the peninsula waiting for the bridge to be repaired. According to the official Russian agency RIA-Novosti, there are 50,000 tourists in Crimea, most of whom came by car from Russia across the bridge.

Andri Yusov, spokesman of the General Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine, in a comment on the publication Suspina, he pointed out that due to the demolition of part of the bridge, the attacking army will have problems with logistics. “The Russians are using the peninsula as a big hub for transferring forces and resources to Ukraine,” Yusov stressed.

An anonymous source based in Kyiv told AFP that the explosions on the Kerch Bridge were the result of “an SBU operation [servicio de seguridad ucraniano] and navy” ​​of the country with the use of “naval drones”. The interlocutor of the French agency stated that “it was difficult to reach the bridge, but in the end it was possible to do it”. According to the adviser of the Ukrainian presidency, Mikhail Podoliak, “Any illegal structure used to deliver Russian instruments of mass murder is necessarily short-lived.”

symbolic construction

The new attack on a particularly symbolic construction for Putin, with which he wanted to record that Crimea belongs to Russia and show that its geographical position is not an obstacle for the Russians to access the peninsula, coincided with the expiration of the grain pact. According to Peskov, “the agreement on grain export via the Black Sea was valid until this Monday”. When asked if such an attitude is related to what happened on the Kerch Bridge, the presidential spokesman replied that “no, these are not events that have anything to do with each other. Even before the attack, Putin’s attitude was the same. As soon as the demands are met, Russia will return to the agreement”.

Indeed, the Russian supreme leader said on Saturday that the main goals of the agreement have not been achieved, since, in his opinion, the grain does not reach the countries in need, and the conditions for the export of Russian fertilizers “have not yet been created met.” compliment”.