Crimean Kerch Bridge destroyed?

Or Vis is not being accurate (as is so common) and the scanning equipment was used but was either not properly maintained or was run by a technician who was in properly trained or did not care. We are talking about Russia so such things are the norm not the exception.

It is hard to get people to care when you are only paying them $600 per month and not providing any necessary training to allow them to actually be good at the job. Especially when some middleman people higher up stole the repair funds so the equipment doesn't even work any way. This is the Russian way of life. Everyone pretending to do a job for a tiny salary. Troll factory propagandists think they have high paying jobs because they get $1000 per month.

 

Ukraine Conflict Updates

Key Takeaways

• A large-scale explosion seriously damaged the Kerch Strait Bridge that links occupied Crimea with Russia.
• The Kremlin named the Russian Commander of the Aerospace Forces, Army General Sergey Surovikin, the new commander of the Russian operation in Ukraine, and this appointment has generated positive feedback within the nationalist community.
• Russian sources claimed that Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations in Kharkiv and Luhansk Oblasts.
• Russian forces continued establishing defensive positions in northern Kherson Oblast.
• Russian forces continued to attack settlements around Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and west of Donetsk City.
• Ukrainian forces reportedly continued to shoot down Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones.
• Russian federal subjects are facing financial challenges in funding mobilization.
• Russian and occupation administration officials continued measures to remove Ukrainian children from their homes in Russian-occupied territories. . . .

A large-scale explosion damaged the Kerch Strait Bridge that links occupied Crimea with Russia on October 8. Maxar satellite imagery shows that the explosion collapsed one lane of the road bridge and damaged the nearby railway track.[1] The Russian Investigative Committee stated that a truck exploded on the bridge and ignited seven fuel tanks on the railroad.[2] A small fraction of Russian milbloggers speculated that Ukrainian saboteurs used a boat to detonate the bridge from the sea, though there is no visible evidence for such a conclusion.[3] The Kremlin refrained from accusing Ukraine of sabotage or attack, echoing similar restraint following the sinking of the cruiser Moskva and the Ukrainian strike on Saky airfield in Crimea.[4] Ukraine did not claim responsibility for the incident, but The New York Times reported that an unnamed senior Ukrainian official stated that Ukrainian intelligence participated in the explosion.[5] Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov noted that the Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a government commission composed of government officials, security services, and the Ministry of Emergency Situations to investigate the ”emergency.”[6]

The explosion will not permanently disrupt critical Russian ground lines of communication (GLOCs) to Crimea, but its aftermath is likely to increase friction in Russian logistics for some time. The road bridge appears at least partially operational, and the railroad bridge did not suffer significant structural damage according to Russian reports that generally seem plausible based on the available video evidence. Russian footage shows people walking on the damaged road bridge and a train moving on the railroad bridge.[7] The Head of occupied Crimea Sergey Aksyonov claimed that the remaining lane of the road bridge opened to cars and buses after a rigorous security check, but that trucks must move by ferry.[8] The collapsed lane of the road bridge will restrict Russian military movements until it is repaired, forcing some Russian forces to rely on the ferry connection for some time. Russian forces will likely still be able to transport heavy military equipment via the railroad. Russian officials will likely intensify security checks on all vehicles crossing the bridge, however, adding delays to the movement of Russian military equipment, personnel, and supplies to Crimea. Putin has already signed a decree strengthening the security protocol on the bridge under the supervision of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).[9] . . .

 

Give the Ukrainians long-range HIMARS missiles, then the bridge will soon be irreparably destroyed.

 

https://www.cnn.com/videos/2022/10/...o/playlists/russia-ukraine-military-conflict/

 

Let us hope.

 

There was a video-recording showing the process of the truck inspection, where it was clearly seen, that it was done visually, without any equipment. The video is in the link in the article.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/versia...a-vzorvavshegosya-na-krymskom-mostu-gruzovika

 

Old saying from the Soviet era: "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us."

 

It will certainly happen shortly before Crimea is retaken.
Nobody needs a bridge from Crimea to Ruzzia, except for the occupiers.

 

Russians keep stealing Ukrainian children because they hope to Russify them and force them to be relocated to rural, often border areas, of Russia because the population there is extremely elderly and dying out. This is a direct action due to Russia's demographic collapse. They are afraid of having empty border regions with no one living there.

Thus the kidnapping of Ukrainian children.

 

It would probably be a net good especially as it would mean the total collapse of Russia on the southern front (including Crimea) but I do wonder about Putin, seeing he is losing with no way to recover, lashing out with nukes.

A rational actor would realize MAD is still in effect but how deluded will Putin become when he is in Hitler's bunker mentality?

 

Such a choice would lead to Putin's own destruction.

 

That's especially the case in the Far East....there's literally hundreds of villages,small towns that are ghost towns...simply because the older ones are dead....younger ones moved to cities for jobs and a "life"?

 

No, they steal Ukranian children to eat them.

 

Who blew up the bridge?

 

Ok.

Your poor communication is not my fault.

 

Probably....vatniks are cannibals.

 

Careless smokers....cheap construction of the bridge, Russki missile went off course,....insurance scam, etc,etc.

 

Sanctions would eventually be lifted. Russia is self sufficient for food and energy. Once Russia ends the war, full trade will resume with China and Russia, through China and other countries will have access to western goods. Russia will be fine if it ends the war.

Ukraine will likely be placed in the long track to Nato membership if Russia leaves on its own. Ukraine will not invade Russia if Putin stops the attack and withdraws. The bridge can be repaired and Ukraine-Russian relations will naturally improve over time.

Putin is seventy-years-old . . . regardless of what he does he will unlikely have a second chance to attack anyone anymore. Putin will eventually appoint a successor. While he's in power, Putin has always and will always be subject to possible assassination. And whether he won in Ukraine or not, this was always going to be the case.

 

"If Putin stops attack and withdraws"??

Somehow I can't see that happening.....he needs to keep escalating here....or he's finished.

Withdraw??....as outta the LDPR and Krym?.....good luck?

Russia will be fine if it ends war"?....well see!

 

If he continues to escalate and never gives up, he is finished. Do you disbelieve that Ukraine will win this and Russia will be completely kicked out of Crimea and the Donbas?

Dead or alive, Russia will have to leave Crimea and the Donbas.

I'm not saying that Putin will withdraw. I'm saying that withdrawal is the best way for Putin to survive and Russia to succeed at improving the lives of its citizens.

The LDPR is a minor insignificant Russian party. Putin was never a member. Do you mean DPR? Krym? Crimea?

If Putin seriously put forward a plan to withdraw his troops completely from Ukraine, Ukraine would have difficulty in stopping him. Both for political and military reasons. Luck would not be needed.

If they force Ukraine to end the war, things will be far worse for Russia. But yes, Russia will be fine if it ends the war now.

I would be happy to see Russia end the war. However, Putin seems to be dead set on continuing it. So, I don't think we'll see Russia end the war. Right now, I think it more likely that Ukraine will end it.

 

Perhaps Putin will just announce that his "special military operation" has successfully removed the "nazis" from Ukraine and withdraw.

Fat chance

 

Ukraine Conflict Updates

This campaign assessment special edition focuses on Russian domestic responses to the Kerch Strait Bridge explosion on October 9 and changes within the Russian chain of command. Ukrainian forces continued to make advances towards Svatove-Kreminna highway on October 9. Those developments are summarized briefly and will be covered in more detail tomorrow.

The attack on the Kerch Strait Bridge, coupled with recent Russian military failures and partial mobilization, is generating direct criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin from the Russian pro-war nationalist community. Some milbloggers, who represent and speak to that community on Telegram, criticized Putin’s and the Kremlin’s failure to address major events forthrightly, noting that it is challenging to rally behind Putin when his government relies on secrecy.[1] Others noted that Putin has consistently failed to address incidents such as the sinking of the cruiser Moskva or the prisoner exchange of Azovstal fighters whom the Kremlin had consistently demonized since the Battle of Mariupol.[2] Some milbloggers said that Putin must retaliate for the explosion on the Kerch Strait Bridge lest his silence be perceived as ”weakness.”[3] Milbloggers who did not criticize Putin instead criticized Russian Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev’s silence following the explosion after he had made several public claims that an attack on the Crimean Bridge was a Russian “red line.”[4] Direct criticism of Putin from this community is almost unprecedented. Milbloggers and other nationalist figures continue to express overwhelming support for Putin’s goals in Ukraine and have hitherto blamed failures and setbacks on the Russian military command or the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD).

These critiques from the pro-war camp may indicate rising doubts about Putin’s ability to deliver on his promised goal of “denazifying” Ukraine and may undermine Putin’s appeal within his core constituency. Putin’s stated objectives for the invasion he launched on February 24 deeply resonated with the nationalist community, which firmly subscribes to the ideology of Russia’s historic and cultural superiority and right to control over the territories of the former Soviet Union and the Russian Empire. Recent military failures have caused some milbloggers to become concerned about Putin’s commitment to that ideology, however, with some milbloggers even accusing him of failing to uphold the ideology even prior to the full-scale invasion in February 2022. One milblogger noted on October 7 his disgust with the Russian political elite, including Putin, for consistently failing to seize Ukraine after the Euromaidan Revolution in 2014 and for conducting an “ugly special military operation” that only further united Ukrainians and the West against Russia.[5]

Milbloggers’ dissatisfaction with Putin’s inability to enforce his own “red lines” is rooted in his failure to properly establish information conditions prior to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Putin had defined red lines as NATO expansion and the delivery of strategic weapons systems including nuclear-capable systems to Ukraine prior to the invasion but he has not publicly adjusted these “red lines” since the invasion began.[6] Milbloggers have thus latched onto Medvedev’s declared “red lines,” which Putin has not publicly affirmed let alone enforced--facts that have only further disappointed them. The Kremlin has left room for confusion regarding its own vision for the war from the outset, a fact that may threaten its continuing support among people for whom the most extreme and grandiose objectives resonate. . . .

 

Revenge attacks on Kyiv. Vlad is having a tanty because someone spolied his birthday, so more innocent people die.

Cue the Putinistas to justify more murders.

 

That is what they do. Justify the murder of civilians.

 

Maybe Jenny will cal lthese people 'human shields', as if Ukraine is forcing its own people to live in their own homes in an attempt to stop Russia doing what Russia is going to do anyway. You honestly have to wonder about the sort of people who would push this stuff.