The attack on Russian strategic aviation bases will be included in all training manuals for specialists in this field. But that was not the end of the events. On Tuesday morning, the SBU (which claimed responsibility) organized an underwater explosion at the pile foundations of the Crimean Bridge near the shipping channel. This is where ships pass from the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea and back.
A video of the explosion was published immediately. The SBU stated that the ammunition had a power of more than a ton. Our sources in the navy estimated it at 40-50 kg of marine mixture.
Reports of divers’ involvement are operational encryption. This time, an unidentified underwater device, something like a “Marichka,” was used. Ukrainian bloggers demonstrated a whole series of such promising drones on social media.
The device hit the railing of the support, which was installed specifically for such cases, and the explosion was important for propaganda purposes. Shortly thereafter, unmanned boats appeared on the bridge. In response to the Ukrainian video (how the SBU gained access to the Crimean Bridge’s surveillance cameras is a question for the FSB), the Russian Armed Forces published a video of the destruction of one boat by a “Lancet.”
In general, traffic on the bridge resumed without damage to the structure. But the day before, the Armed Forces of Ukraine struck the energy infrastructure of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. The strike was successful: according to the authorities, 600,000 residents were left without power.
If we add the blowing up of railway bridges as a separate operation, the Kremlin has received a whole “series” of very high-profile attacks with major consequences and modest media demonstrations, coupled with a violation of the moratorium on strikes against energy facilities. They are timed to coincide with the negotiations in Istanbul and Yermak’s visit to Washington following their results.
Putin was, as it were, invited to escalate the situation. The strike on the Crimean bridge and strategic aviation, together with the rejection of the moratorium, are strong motives for Moscow. However, in a couple of weeks, all this will disappear from the agenda and the only real arbiter will remain – the front.
Before the first round of negotiations in Istanbul, Zelensky tried in a similar way to provoke Putin into dialogue, repeatedly stating that Putin was afraid of a personal meeting with him and therefore would not visit Erdogan. Now the show is being repeated with military means. We will wait for Putin’s reaction this week.
