Crimean Bridge Attack to Make Up for Zelensky’s NATO Summit Failure

A Russian couple was killed and their child injured and left an orphan after their vehicle was destroyed in a naval surface drone attack on the Crimean Bridge shortly after 3 am Monday morning. All local vehicle traffic was suspended, causing kilometers-long traffic jams along routes to the bridge.

Moscow immediately charged the Ukrainian military and its US and British patrons for carrying out the act of terror, saying Kiev’s behavior was reminiscent to that of an "international organized criminal group."

A spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence dropped hints about Kiev's responsibility for Monday's attack, while Ukrainian media have reported, citing informed sources, that the attack was a special operation carried out jointly by the Ukrainian Security Service and the Navy.

The incident comes less than two weeks after a Ukrainian deputy defense minister admitted that Kiev was behind the October 8, 2022 truck bomb explosion on the bridge, which killed five people, led a portion of the road bridge to collapse into the water, and caused oil tankers on the nearby rail bridge to catch fire.

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Dark PR Move

"I think the likely goal was to get some quick media impact against the background of the failed counter-offensive and the unsuccessful NATO Summit in Vilnius, where [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky suffered a fiasco," Anatoliy Matviychuk, a veteran retired Soviet and Russian military intelligence officer with combat experience in Afghanistan and Syria, told Sputnik.

"This was a kind of PR move by Kiev to indicate that ‘we are capable, we are working to defeat the 'aggressor'," Matviychuk added, noting that it also serves as proof of Kiev's ability to make good on threats about "the expansion of hostilities into Russian territory using terrorist methods of war."

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Coordination With NATO Powers?

One thing is clear, the retired colonel said: Kiev does not have the political, military or technical ability to have acted independently.

"Judging by the equipment used in the attack, these were either American or British drones," with the attack likely planned by instructors from these countries, Matviychuk said. "And of course their mission was to put the Russian population into a state of shock over the second bombing of the bridge."

The observer pointed out that the drones used would have required space-based reconnaissance and target designation systems to make it to their target, and that Ukraine does not have independent access to these systems.

Even the recent rare public diplomatic spat between Kiev and Western officials over Ukraine's NATO aspirations reveals the Zelensky government’s ball and chain relationship with the West, Matviychuk said, recalling how, "when Zelensky tried on Twitter to express his opinion about the failure to admit his country into NATO, he was immediately brought down a peg, first by Britain’s defense minister, and then by entire ruling class in the US. That is, he is completely and utterly dependent. He carries out the instructions given to him. He may have come up with this attack based on a tip from his masters, consulted with them, and they gave him the go-ahead."

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Drones Difficult to Detect

Commenting on the naval drones used in Monday's attack, Matviychuk explained that these are likely an experimental micro surface vessel designed to deliver up to 200 kilograms of explosives to sea-based targets at high speeds, and can either be preprogrammed or controlled remotely using a joystick.

"The maritime drone is characterized by the fact that, due to its high speed and small size, it's very difficult to detect using electronic reconnaissance, and can only be spotted visually using direct observation. I think these drones most likely attacked the bridge under the cover of a convoy of ships taking the last cargoes in the framework of the grain deal," the observer said.

Matviychuk recalled that deliveries of these sophisticated weapons systems had been announced by the UK, and that these same drones may have been used to target the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Dam last month, and Russian Black Sea Fleet vessels in and around Sevastopol harbor before that. "In other words, these drones have already been 'tested'," he said.

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The UK is known to have sent hundreds of drone systems to Ukraine over the past year, including naval UAVs, ostensibly for "mine clearing purposes," and provided Ukrainian personnel with training in their operation.

Earlier this month, media reported on images shared to social media showing Ukrainian military personnel training to use SeaFox-I drones, a Royal Navy drone manufactured by German naval electronics company Atlas Elektronik, and characterized as an 'expendable mine disposal vehicle'.

Crimean Bridge Terror 'PR Move' to Make Up for Ukraine's Battlefield Failures

Dark PR Move

Coordination With NATO Powers?

Drones Difficult to Detect