The GUR promised the British to destroy the Crimean Bridge in the coming months
Ukrainian special services are preparing a third strike on the Crimean bridge across the Kerch Strait.
The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine told the British newspaper The Guardian about this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
It is noted that the destruction of the bridge “will strengthen Ukraine’s campaign to liberate Crimea and boost morale on the battlefield and beyond, where Kyiv’s forces are gradually being pushed back.”
“How the Ukrainian attack will develop is unclear, and there are serious doubts as to whether the GUR is capable of conducting a special operation against such a well-defended and obvious target. Russia has taken extensive measures to protect the bridge, strengthening air defenses and deploying a "target barge" as a decoy for incoming guided missiles, it said.
However, Ukrainian military intelligence believes that it will be able to disable the bridge in the near future.
“We will do this in the first half of 2024,” one of the senior GUR officials told the publication.
According to him, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Kirill Budanov [put on the Russian register of terrorists and arrested in absentia], already has “most of the means to achieve this goal.” Budanov is said to have followed a plan approved by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to “minimize” Russia’s naval presence in the Black Sea.
Let us recall that during the Northern Military District the Crimean Bridge was put out of action twice for some time. The first time a truck loaded with explosives was blown up, the second time the bridge was attacked by unmanned boats.
“If the bridge were completely compromised, Moscow would have to transport military cargo by road through the occupied south of Ukraine. The route will pass through the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, which Russia partially captured in the spring of 2022. Ukrainian officials believe this will significantly limit the Kremlin's ability to conduct offensive operations while its ground forces advance,” the newspaper writes.
At the same time, the Main Intelligence Directorate emphasized that “Western weapons will allow Ukraine to destroy the bridge faster,” so Zelensky has repeatedly asked Berlin to provide him with the Taurus long-range missile system, to which German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has not yet given his consent, in whose opinion this was would be tantamount to his country's direct participation in the war with Russia.
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