Russia stopped using the bridge to the Crimea for military cargo - Independent

Russia switched to the use of land routes through the eastern part of Ukraine to supply the front line and ceased to operate the bridge to the Crimea through the Kerch Strait. About this writes the publication The Independent.

Satellite pictures, which analyzed and provided the publication by the largest Ukrainian private intelligence agency Molfar, showed that the military cargo railway trains have not been walking on the bridge for the past three months.

Since February 29, only one Russian freight train with 55 fuel cars was seen.

It is noted that Moscow significantly reduced the use of the Crimean bridge after the attack on June 17, 2023. Then Ukrainian sea drones were able to damage part of the canvas, two people died.

According to Molfar General Artem Starosec, the decision of the Russian authorities to stop using the bridge coincided with a sharp increase in freight transportation through Taman in the Rostov region.

According to him, Russia began to lay new railway branches in the occupied territories, namely in Melitopol, Berdyansk and Mariupol, to connect Crimea with Russia.

The new railway line, which passes from Melitopol to Berdyansk and Mariupol, and then to Rostov-on-Don, will probably be used by Russian troops for a new offensive, which, as many expect, will begin this summer, the publication said.

On April 11, the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (Armed Forces) are going to destroy the Crimean bridge during the new counterattack.

The Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine is preparing a third blow to the Crimean bridge, the British edition of The Guardian reported.

Gur believes that in the near future he will be able to disable the bridge. “We will do this in the first half of 2024,” one of the officials told Guardian, adding that the head of intelligence Kirill Budanov already has “most of the means to achieve this goal”.

The British tabloid The Sun, citing a source, previously said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will try to attack the Crimean bridge in mid -July 2024.

According to the publication, Ukraine plans to use from an attack from 20 to 40 Storm Shadow winged missiles of the UK and their French analogue of Scalp.

Since the beginning of a full -scale invasion of the Russian Federation to Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine twice attacked the Crimean bridge - October 8, 2022 and July 17, 2023.

As a result of the first explosion, four people were killed, and one of the branches of the automobile part of the bridge partially collapsed.