Context
The bridge across the Kerch Strait connecting the Crimea and the Russian Federation, the aggressor country began to build a year after the occupation of the peninsula in 2015. The road bridge was opened in 2018, railway – in 2019–2020.
During a full -scale war on the Crimean bridge, explosions occurred twice. The first is October 8, 2022. The railway track of the bridge was damaged and several spans were destroyed car. The second explosion occurred on July 17, 2023. As a result of the incident, two flights of bridges were seriously damaged. At the attacks on the bridge stood Ukrainian special services.
In March 2024, the head of the SBU Vasily Malyuk said that Ukraine has potential For the complete destruction of the Crimean bridge, but Russia does not use it to move weapons and ammunition. According to the head of the military intelligence of Ukraine Kirill Budanov, the long -range ATACMS missiles, which the United States transferred to Ukraine, can destroy the bridge, “the question is only in their quantity.”
In the summer of 2023, Russian propaganda informed about the installation of bonal barriers Near the Crimean bridge. At the beginning of the summer of 2024, the partisan movement of Atesh reported that Russian invaders began to strengthen the protection of the Crimean bridge: they They put up old barges along it and transferred additional air defense systems to the Kerch area. In August, it became known about the construction near the bridge of an unknown object, similar to the bridge. Journalists suggested that the new structure is intended to increase the protection of the bridge from potential attacks.
