Ukraine launches daring new kamikaze drone attack in bid to destroy Russia’s major £3m bridge to Crimea

Ukraine has launched an overnight bold new bid to blow up Russia’s £3million bridge connecting Moscow-annexed Crimea, cutting the stretch for the third time in less than a year should be temporarily closed.

Three semi-submersible kamikaze drones were deployed in Ukraine’s latest assault on the bridge, Moscow said, claiming the missiles were intercepted and destroyed en route to the border crossing.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, one drone was destroyed late Friday and early Saturday. There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials.

The Kerch Bridge, a key supply route for Kremlin forces in the war with Ukraine, has been attacked repeatedly since Russia invaded Ukraine.

An explosion in October, which Russian authorities say was caused by a truck bomb, killed three people. Another attack in July killed a couple and seriously injured their daughter, leaving part of the roadway hanging dangerously.

A view through a train window shows the section of a road that splits and slopes to one side after an alleged attack on the Crimean Bridge, July 17

The bridge connecting Crimea to Russia is of great logistical and psychological significance to Moscow, as a major thoroughfare for military and civilian supplies and as an affirmation of the Kremlin’s control of the peninsula it annexed in 2014.

Ukraine has promised to continue to strive for irreparable damage to the border crossing.

The unmanned kamikaze drones were hit by ships of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet last night, the defense ministry in Moscow said.

The crossing was closed and there were large traffic jams on both sides of the bridge.

One of the drones may have been trying to attack the Russian patrol ship Inquisitive, the Rybar Telegram channel claimed.

The naval drone “tried to hide among the ships anchored” in the Kerch Strait, but was spotted and exploded.

Russia boasted this week that it had improved its surveillance of drone activity around Crimea, using it to thwart a Ukrainian attempt to land on the peninsula with the help of naval aviation to launch an attack .

“The Black Sea Fleet has been constantly monitoring the situation in the Black Sea through all kinds of reconnaissance,” the Russian defense ministry said.

Traffic forms headed for July after a marine kamikaze drone specially developed for Ukraine called Sea Baby, loaded with 850kg of explosives, caused structural damage to the crossing

Black smoke rises from a fire on the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea to Russia, near Kerch, on October 8, 2022

Moscow labeled the latest naval drone strikes as terrorism, but did not use the same label to describe its attacks on Ukraine.

In October, a bomb hidden in a truck exploded on the bridge, causing extensive damage.

In July, a specially developed marine kamikaze drone called Sea Baby, loaded with 850 kg of explosives, caused structural damage to the crossing.

The latest attacks came in a week that saw record drone strikes against Russia, including a hit that destroyed two Il-76 transport planes and damaged two more in Pskov, close to the country’s NATO border with Latvia and Estonia.

Elsewhere, two Ukrainian drones were also intercepted in Russia’s Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine, the defense ministry said.

A woman was wounded on Saturday during shelling of a village in the Kursk region, also bordering Ukraine, regional governor Roman Starovoit said. He blamed Ukraine for the shelling.

Ukrainian authorities, who usually do not comment on attacks on Russian territory, did not say whether they launched the attacks. Drone attacks and shelling in border areas are a regular occurrence.

The Ukrainian military said on Saturday that Russia had carried out four rocket attacks and 39 airstrikes in the past 24 hours, in addition to 42 attacks from multiple rocket launchers.

Cars drive on the Crimean bridge connecting Russia and the Crimean peninsula in the Kerch Strait, on the Taman Peninsula in the Krasnodar region of Russia, October 8, 2022

Workers repair the side of damaged spans of the road section of the Crimean Bridge connecting the Russian mainland and the Crimean peninsula across the Kerch Strait during restoration works, November 19, 2022

British military officials said on Saturday that Russia risks splitting its forces in a bid to prevent a Ukrainian breakthrough in southern Ukraine.

According to British intelligence, Ukrainian forces continued to engage in offensive action on the Orikhiv axis in southern Ukraine, with units reaching the first Russian line of defence.

Ukrainian deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar said Friday that Kiev troops are advancing in the Zaporizhia region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will receive Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks next week, the Kremlin announced Friday, just over six weeks after Moscow broke a deal brokered by Ankara and the UN that allowed Ukraine’s grain reach global markets safely despite the 18 months of war.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Erdogan will meet Monday in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi.

In addition, Kiev claimed to have damaged four Su-30 fighter jets, one MiG-29 fighter jet, two Pantsir-S1 short-range air defense systems and a radar coupled to an S-300 long-range surface-to-air missile system. in an attack in Kursk with aerial drones made of cardboard.

Ukraine also claimed on Friday it hit a key Russian factory near Moscow that produced electronics for Putin’s missiles. This attack was strongly denied by Russia.

Putin is ramping up his own drone production. He promised to train one million drone operators, but admitted that may not be enough.

“We have a program until 2030, we have to train a million specialists in this field,” he said.

“Maybe this won’t be enough yet, because (the industry) is developing very fast.”