Ukraine Ramps Up Attacks Against Russian Targets With Crimean Bridge Sabotage, Drone Attacks on Occupied Regions

Ukraine is widening its all-out offensive on Russian targets following the weekend’s audacious attack against air force bases across the country, this time closer to home with an underwater explosion beneath a vital crossing connecting Crimea with the mainland.The Kerch Bridge, which connects Russia with the occupied territory, was closed twice on Tuesday after the explosion. The extent of the damage to the crossing, also known as the Crimean Bridge, was not immediately known, but vehicular traffic resumed shortly before 6 p.m. local time.The attack on the 12-mile span across the Kerch Strait was the third conducted by Ukraine since the start of the war with Russia in 2022. Officials for the SBU, Ukraine’s security service, claimed responsibility for the attack in a series of messages posted to Telegram, saying that its agents had used 1,100 kilograms of explosives to damage underwater pylons supporting the structure.“God loves the Trinity, and the SBU always sees things through to the end and never does the same thing twice,” the SBU head, Vasul Malyuk, said in a statement. “We previously struck the Crimean Bridge twice, in 2022 and 2023. So today, we continued this tradition, this time underwater.”Mr. Malyuk also said that the bridge was often used by Russia “as a logistical artery to supply its troops” stationed in mainland Ukraine, making it a “completely legitimate target.”In October 2022, just months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Ukrainian operatives drove a fuel truck onto the span and set off an explosion, causing a section to be engulfed in flames. In the summer of the following year, they used an experimental sea drone to trigger another explosion. Each time, Russia quickly repaired the bridge, which was erected in 2018 and has long been symbolic of President Putin’s desire to anchor the Ukrainian peninsula to Russia.The attack is just the latest in a series amid tepid peace talks between Russia and Ukraine over the weekend.On Sunday, Ukraine launched a barrage of drones in a coordinated attack dubbed “Operation Spiderweb” targeting multiple Russian airbases across several regions of the country. The attacks used a total of 177 drones smuggled into Russia in shipping containers to damage dozens of nuclear bombers and other aircraft, causing what Ukraine claims was $7 billion in damage to the military assets.The attacks, dubbed “the Russian Pearl Harbor,” have led Russian officials to search for a Ukranian DJ and his wife, an erotica writer, after authorities learned that the trucks used to smuggle the drones into the bases belonged to a company he owns.Artem Timofeev is being sought along with his wife, Ekaterina “Katya” Timofeeva, for allegedly helping to facilitate the attacks, according to a Russian media outlet, Readovka.“Artem is now wanted in connection with a terrorist attack in Irkutsk region,” the report reads. “Four lorries were registered in his name, and one of them was the source of the drones that launched” in an attack on a Russian air base.The couple, originally from Ukraine but believed to be living in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, were thought to have fled after the attacks were carried out.Ukraine also launched on Tuesday a barrage of attacks on Russian-controlled territories within their own country, targeting the southeastern Zaporizhzhia and Kerson regions with drones and shelling, according to Reuters. The attacks severely damaged electric substations, leaving about 700,000 people without power.

Ukraine Ramps Up Attacks Against Russian Targets With Crimean Bridge Sabotage, Drone Attacks on Occupied Regions

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