The structure will be destroyed by the end of the year, Kiev’s envoy to the UN has implied
FILE PHOTO: The Crimean Bridge in September, 2023. © Sputnik / Konstantin Mihalchevskiy
Ukraine’s envoy to the UN, Sergey Kislitsa, has issued a veiled threat against Russia’s Crimean Bridge, implying that the structure will not be standing by the end of the year.
Russia completed the structure spanning the Kerch Strait in 2020, as part of Moscow’s strategy to counter a Ukrainian land blockade of Crimea. The peninsula voted to break away from Ukraine and join Russia in 2014 following the US-backed coup in Kiev earlier the same year.
Ukrainian special services have staged two major bombing attacks on the bridge since Moscow launched its military campaign against Kiev in 2022.
Kislitsa issued his threat in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, sharing a picture of a “2024 list of 6 Main Types of Bridges.” The example labelled “Kerch” showed an empty space.
Senior Ukrainian officials have declared the destruction of the Crimean Bridge as a priority, claiming it is a legitimate military target. President Vladimir Zelensky told German media earlier this month that destroying the link is something that “we want… very much.”
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Russian civilians were killed in Ukrainian attacks on the bridge in October 2022 and July 2023. Moscow responded to the first incident, which involved an explosives-laden truck driven by an unwitting hauler, by adding the Ukrainian power grid to its list of legitimate military targets.
A number of of Kiev’s foreign backers share its attitude to strikes on Russian infrastructure. Last week, Lithuania’s ambassador to Sweden, Linas Linkevicius, suggested on social media that the US supply of ATACMS missiles would result in the destruction of the Crimean Bridge. The diplomat urged people to take selfies with the structure while they still can.
Moscow considers Ukrainian threats and tactics as confirmation that using military force against its neighbor was the correct decision. Russian officials have also suggested that Kiev has escalated its sabotage and bombing campaigns due to battlefield failures.
Amid frontline setbacks, Kiev is resorting to “attempts to incur and seize border territories, strikes against peaceful areas, including with multiple-launch rocket systems, attacks on energy infrastructure, attempted missile strikes at the Crimean bridge and the peninsula itself,” Russian President Vladimir Putin stated last month.
