UKRAINE CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR NEW CRIMEA BRIDGE ATTACK

Mon 17 July 2023:

The Crimean Bridge, the only link between the annexed peninsula and Russia, has suffered damage to its spans, Russia’s Transport Ministry said on Monday.

Images showed a partial collapse, of a section of the roadway portion of the bridge, which also carries railroad tracks.

A source in Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) told CNN the attack was a joint operation of the SBU and Ukraine’s naval forces. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not received authorization to speak on the record.

Two strikes were allegedly carried out, around 3 a.m. local time, damaging part of the bridge, according to the Telegram channel Grey Zone, which supports the Wagner mercenary group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin.

As with previous alleged attacks in Crimea, the Ukrainian government has been opaque in its messaging. But the Security Service of Ukraine hinted that the Ukrainian government was responsible.

The Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne has reported that the incident on the Crimean Bridge involved the Ukrainian Navy and the security service SBU, quoting sources within law enforcement.

French news agency AFP also reported the same claim but quoted an SBU source.

“Today’s attack on the Crimean Bridge is a special operation of the SBU and the navy,” the source was quoted as saying.

The source also said Ukraine carried out the operation using waterborne drones.

According to the Russia’s National Antiterrorism Committee, Ukraine attacked the Crimean Bridge overnight using unmanned drones on the water’s surface,.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement that Ukrainian “special services” were responsible for the attack and that it had opened a criminal investigation.

Two dead, one child injured in bridge ’emergency’: Russian official

A man and woman were killed, and their daughter injured in a passenger car on the Crimea Bridge early on Monday, Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region in southern Russia, said.

“The girl was injured,” Gladkov said in a message on Telegram. “The hardest thing is that her parents died, Dad and Mum.”

Gladkov said the car they were travelling in had number plates from his region, which he said was urgently trying to contact relatives of the injured girl.

The girl is being treated by doctors and is said to have “moderate” injuries.

“I wanted to express the most sincere words of condolences from all of us, although I understand that no words can calm the pain of loss here,” he said.

The health ministry of the Krasnodar region in southern Russia confirmed the deaths of the two parents of the injured child.

The nearly 12-mile bridge, also known as the Kerch Bridge, is the longest in Europe and carries both road and rail traffic.

It holds huge strategic and symbolic importance for Russia, which built the 19-kilometer bridge at a cost of around $3.7 billion, after Moscow illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014. It was the physical expression of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s objective, to take over Ukraine and bind it to Russia forever.

It is a critical artery for supplying Crimea, with both its daily needs and supplies for the military, in addition to fuel and goods for civilians.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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