Storm Shadows, sea drones & new F-16s…Ukraine’s 100-day plot to finally destroy Vlad’s £3bn bridge & cut off war machine
UKRAINIAN officials say they will destroy Vladimir Putin's most beloved bridge by mid-July - giving them roughly 100 days to pull off the near-impossible.
Raining hell on the £3billion structure with Storm Shadow missiles, sea drones and newly arrived F-16s could finally sever Russia's only land bridge to Crimea, a weapons expert told The Sun.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/27205404/storm-shadows-ukraine-plot-destroy-crimea-bridge/#
For Putin, the 12-mile Kerch bridge - which he hailed a "miracle" upon its completion - is a visible symbol of his sham triumph in "returning" Crimea to its homeland.
For Ukraine, it's target number one - a grotesque display of 10 years of Russian occupation.
Destroying it would be a major step in winning the war in the Black Sea by cutting off a major Russian military supply route and choking Putin's war machine.
Bryan Clark, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and director of the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, believes it is entirely possible Ukraine could do it - but it needs the right weapons.
The "most actively defended bridge in the world" could be brought down with a "multi-pronged" big bang-style air and sea attack, he told The Sun.
Clark, an expert in naval operations and electronic warfare, predicted Storm Shadow missiles would be used to pummel its structure, while unmanned explosive boats detonate at its base.
Ukraine's spy agency, the SBU, have already orchestrated two daring attacks in the past. Both times the bridge was repaired.
A midnight sea drone strike last July caused extensive damage to the road section, hampering Russia's ability to move tanks and supplies into Crimea.
In October 2022, a truck bomb blasted a gaping hole in the bridge's centre, setting fire to the railway and sinking parts of the road into the water.
Now, Ukraine is plotting a fierce third attack - one that would take it down for good.
Last week, Kyiv's military intelligence agency (HUR) declared they will destroy it "in the first half of 2024".
A HUR official stated Ukraine already had “most of the means to carry out this goal” and that it was part of President Volodymyr Zelensky's plan to end Russian naval presence in the Black Sea.
Kyiv has "no choice" not to strike targets behind enemy lines, the official told The Guardian, adding that western long-range guided missiles were essential to this plot.
If the Kerch bridge was permanently compromised, Moscow would lose a major military supply line.
For Ukraine, Clark said: "One goal is symbolic, one goal is to prevent the resupply of the Black Sea Fleet and the other is to cut its troops off and drive them off the peninsula."
