Russia is shoring up the defenses for the Kerch Bridge with barges, the UK’s protection ministry stated on Saturday.
“Evaluation of images has recognized the set up of eight barges on the southern aspect of the Kerch Bridge,” the UK’s protection ministry wrote in its intelligence dispatch.
“These barges had been positioned by Russian forces in an try and defend the bridge and delivery channel, lowering the angles of method for Ukrainian Unmanned Floor Automobiles (USVs),” the ministry stated.
Based on the ministry, the barges had been put in between Might 10 and Might 22.
This is not the primary time barges have been positioned close to the bridge, which connects Russia to occupied Crimea, per the UK’s protection ministry.
“Beforehand put in obstacles have been broken by storms, lowering their effectiveness,” the intelligence dispatch stated.
The Kerch Bridge has been a key army artery for the Russians, who depend on it to move their army freight into occupied Crimea and southwestern Ukraine.
However Ukrainians view the bridge, which was inbuilt 2018 after the Russians had annexed Crimea in 2014, as an unlawful development. Because the Russian invasion of Ukraine started in February 2022, the Ukrainians have managed to wreck the bridge in two profitable assaults.
The first assault occurred in October 2022, when a gasoline tank explosion noticed the bridge’s highway part collapse. The second assault passed off in July when it focused the bridge’s assist struts with sea drones.
The repeated assaults seem to have precipitated the Russians to cease utilizing the bridge. Based on a report from the open-source intelligence group Molfar final month, Russian army freight trains weren’t seen on the bridge between February and mid-April.
As an alternative, the Russians appear to have positioned their hopes on a new railway route that runs alongside the Azov Sea. The route passes via Russian-occupied Mariupol and Berdiansk earlier than ending in Crimea.
“The railway alongside the land hall is recognition on the a part of the Russian occupiers that the Crimean Bridge is doomed,” Dmitry Pletenchuk, a spokesman for Ukraine’s southern army command, instructed The Economist in a story revealed on June 2.
“They’re searching for a method to hedge their bets as a result of they’re conscious that ultimately, they are going to have an issue,” he continued.
Representatives for Russia’s protection ministry didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from Enterprise Insider despatched outdoors common enterprise hours.
