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Ukraine's ‘Groundhog Day’ of Rehashed Counteroffensive and Crimean Bridge Bluster

© Sputnik / Konstantin Mihalchevskiy / Go to the mediabankThe Crimean Bridge.
The Crimean Bridge. - Sputnik International, 1920, 15.04.2024
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After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky trailed plans for another counteroffensive in an interview to German newspaper Bild, a high-ranking source in the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the new attempt would end in complete disaster for Kiev and the ultimate defeat of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
For Volodymyr Zelensky and his neo-Nazi henchmen it increasingly looks like “Groundhog Day,” as they regurgitate the same old bravado.
The Ukrainian president and his generals have touted plans for a “new counteroffensive,” along with a “100-day plot” to destroy the Crimean Bridge.
Although the much-heralded summer counteroffensive of 2023 ground to a halt with crippling troop and equipment losses, Zelensky is now claiming that all he needs is more advanced weapons from his Western backers.
British newspaper The Sun ran a click-bait story over the weekend claiming to have exclusive knowledge of Ukraine’s plot to attack the Crimea Bridge in mid-July.
The tabloid even found a weapons expert to draw up infographics about how the plan could be pulled off in a "multi-pronged attack.”
Some 20 to 40 UK-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles and their French counterpart SCALP would ostensibly “pummel” the bridge’s upper structure, while unmanned explosive boats could “detonate at its base.”
US-made F-16s, which Ukraine is yet to get its hands on from European patrons, would supposedly be used in the attack – although the expert quoted did note the “snag” that the jet fighters are “not yet compatible with Storm Shadows.”
The Crimean Bridge - Sputnik International, 1920, 09.09.2023
Russia's Special Operation in Ukraine
Russian Navy Destroys 3 Ukrainian Boats Trying to Attack Crimean Bridge - MoD
Anonymous officials from Ukraine’s military intelligence service announced their intent to destroy the bridge "in the first half of 2024". One quoted official claimed that Ukraine already had “most of the means to carry out this goal.”
Meanwhile, Zelensky has been pleading with his Western sponsors for more “modern weapons systems” and money, claiming in an interview with German tabloid Bild that Ukraine has a plan for a "new counteroffensive."
The previous such attempt, announced in early 2023, was delayed until June 4 and called off by Zelensky in November 2023 without achieving its goal — to reach the Sea of Azov in order to cut “the land bridge” between Crimea and the mainland.
The Crimean Bridge across the Kerch Strait, which links Russia’s Crimean Peninsula with Krasnodar territory, has been an thorn in the side of the Kiev regime and its patrons in the West. The Ukrainian military has tried to compensate for its failures on the battlefield by targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, including the bridge.

Ukraine has attacked the Crimean Bridge twice since the start of Russia's special military operation. On October 8, 2022, a truck loaded with explosives blew up while crossing the bridge, killing five people including the driver, and damaging both the road and rail spans. Kiev denied responsibility until finally admitting last year that it bombed the bridge "in order to break the logistics of the Russians." On July 17, 2023, a second explosion occurred after an attack by a naval drone. A family from Belgorod region who were driving across the bridge at the time were killed.

Crimean bridge - Sputnik International, 1920, 01.03.2024
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Full Transcript of German Top Military Officials' Leaked Plot to Attack Crimean Bridge
In March, a leaked audio of a conversation between four German senior military officers, including German Air Force chief General Ingo Gerhartz, revealed plans for an attack on the Crimean Bridge.
The high-ranking Bundeswehr officers discussed how they would "bomb the Crimean bridge" using German Cruise missiles fired from French fighter jets in the 40-minute recording, mentioning colleagues from the US and UK. The audio also included operational and targeting details of Taurus missiles.
Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate, recently admitted that Kiev faced problems achieving the “destruction” of the bridge as the structure was “well protected.”
Budanov, who has been charged in absentia by Russia’s Investigative Committee with 104 cases of terrorism carried out on Russian territory, told the German Bild that Ukrainian special services are still working on a plan.
All the plans discussed by Ukrainian authorities assume the use of terrorist methods against Russian infrastructure, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier in April.
"The Kiev regime is openly talking about its aggressive plans, terrorist plans against the infrastructure of the Russian Federation. Thus, it once again demonstrates their nature,” the spokesman told reporters.
Zelensky's latest threats once again expose the nature of the Kiev regime and prove the correctness of the decision to launch the special military operation, Peskov noted.
Pointing to Ukraine's combat losses, huge personnel shortages and dysfunction in Kiev, a senior Russian Ministry of Defense was quoteted as saying that there was little doubt Zelensky's new plan for a counteroffensive would end in a complete disaster for Ukraine and "the beginning of the path to peace on Russian terms."
Destroyed military equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the zone of Russia's special military operation. - Sputnik International, 1920, 12.04.2024
Analysis
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