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.”
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.
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."