Putin’s Bridge is Falling Down, Falling Down

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Two dead after explosions on Kerch Bridge linking Crimea and Russia | Crimea | The Guardian

The Kerch Bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula to Russia has been closed after explosions in the early hours of Monday morning killed two people and injured a child.

The heavily guarded road and rail link is among the Kremlin’s most important and high-prestige infrastructure projects, and the only overland link that goes directly from Russia to occupied Crimea.

Video published by the pro-Kremlin Crimea 24 channel, taken from the adjacent railway bridge, showed a section of the road bridge had sheared off and was sloping towards the Black Sea.

[…]

Ukrainian media outlets cited unnamed sources suggesting the Ukrainian domestic security service, along with the navy, had been responsible for the attack. Some reports suggested underwater drones may have been used.

If the damage was caused by an attack, it will be the second time the bridge has been sabotaged. It follows a coup attempt by the Wagner mercenary group last month amid reports that senior field commanders are being removed from their posts in Ukraine.

A ferry service linking Crimea with Kuban, in the Russian region of Krasnodar, has also been halted, the Russian Tass news agency reported.

The bridge, a much-hated symbol of Russia’s occupation of Crimea, was built on Putin’s orders and inaugurated by him in 2018. It is a key link for bringing troops, equipment and supplies to Moscow’s invasion force in Ukraine.

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18 thoughts on “Putin’s Bridge is Falling Down, Falling Down”

  1. more from the guardian link:

    […]
    The 19km (12-mile) bridge is the only direct land link between Russia and Crimea; ferries are slower and when winter weather hits the Black Sea, can be unreliable.
    The road and railway bridges run parallel, with a wide suspension span in the middle to allow ships to pass through. It has been a supply route for food, fuel and other supplies for Russian troops invading southern Ukraine, and for the naval base at Sevastopol port, the base of Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet.
    When the bridge is closed Russia can still send supplies to Crimea through occupied Ukraine, along the coastal highway through ruined Mariupol, beside the Sea of Azov, but this is a longer route and presents a less challenging target for Ukrainian forces than the heavily guarded bridge.
    “The Kerch Strait Bridge is a logistically significant object,” George Barrows, an analyst with US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War, wrote on Twitter after the first reports of explosions on the bridge.
    “Russia will only have one ground supply line – the coastal highway on the Sea of Azov – to sustain (or evacuate) it’s tens of thousands of troops in occupied Kherson & Crimea if UKR manages to degrade/destroy the bridge.”

  3. and a ditty also composed last year according to amiright:

    Bridge of Kertch is falling down
    Falling down, falling down
    Bridge of Kertch is falling down
    Cyka blyat Putin!

    Build it up with iron bars
    Iron bars, iron bars
    Build it up with iron bars
    Cyka blyat Putin!

    Iron bars will bend and break
    Bend and break, bend and break
    Iron bars will bend and break
    Cyka blyat Putin!

    Build it up with gold and silver
    Gold and silver, gold and silver
    Build it up with gold and silver
    Cyka blyat Putin!

    Gold and silver we’ve not got
    We’ve not got, we’ve not got
    Gold and silver we’ve not got
    Cyka blyat Putin!

    Repair it with an old gas line
    Old gas tube, old gas line
    Repair it with an old gas line
    Cyka blyat Putin!

    Old gas line has been blown up,
    Been blown up, been blown up
    Old gas line has been blown up
    Cyka blyat Putin!

    Fix it with some chewing gum
    Chewing gum, chewing gum
    Fix it with some chewing gum
    Cyka blyat Putin!

    We’ve run out of chewing gum
    Chewing gum, chewing gum
    We’ve run out of chewing gum
    Cyka blyat Putin!

    Russia’s now in trouble deep
    Trouble deep, trouble deep
    Russia’s now in trouble deep
    Cyka blyat Putin!

  5. https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/17/politics/joe-manchin-new-hampshire-third-party/index.html

    Go away, Manchin. Go back to your house boat!

    “The moderate Democratic senator will take part in a town hall hosted by the group No Labels to help launch a new “common sense” platform on immigration, health care, gun control, the economy and other issues that it believes are being ignored by what it views as two ideological and increasingly extreme main parties

    “No Labels says it is considering a third-party unity ticket with one Republican and one Democrat in November 2024 and will make a final decision next year based on whether its “insurance plan” has a viable chance of victory.”

    Real Dems hate Manchin. MAGAts also hate Manchin. This third-party game sounds like something cooked up by someone who wants to exploit Manchin’s massive ego, to pick off Biden. There are a dozen Dems that come to mind as being good candidates before Manchin. I’m sticking with POTUS Joe Biden. FU, Manchin.

    Biden/Harris 2024!

  7. Feels like this week could be go time for Jack Smith’s insurrection case. Fani’s self-established window in Atlanta opens next week, and there doesn’t appear to be anyone left for Smith to question, all the major players have appeared before his Grand Jury. I just hope he doesn’t opt out of indictments and instead put out a report. That would be lame.

  8. Scary stuff, the dictator plan:

    Trump and Allies Forge Plans to Increase Presidential Power in 2025 — free link NYT

    “Trump and his associates have a broad goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him.”

  9. putie holding the hungriest of the world hostage again

    BBCnews:

    Russia has notified the UN, Turkey and Ukraine that it will not renew a crucial grain deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea.
    Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the agreements had reached a “de facto” end on Monday.
    The deal let cargo ships pass through the Black Sea from the ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhny/Pivdennyi.
    But, Moscow said it would return to the agreement if its conditions were met.
    Russian President Vladimir Putin had long complained that parts of the deal allowing the export of Russian food and fertilisers had not been honoured. In particular, he said grain had not been supplied to poorer countries, which was a condition of the agreement.
    Russia also repeatedly complained that Western sanctions were restricting its own agricultural exports. Mr Putin repeatedly threatened to pull out of the agreement.
    But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday he believed that Mr Putin “wants to continue the agreement” and that they would discuss the renewal of the deal when they meet in person next month.
    The grain deal is important as Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of sunflower, maize, wheat and barley.
    […]
    Nikolay Gorbachev, the president of the Ukrainian Grain Association, told the BBC that his members had identified alternative means of exporting grain – including through its Danube River ports.
    But he conceded that the ports would be less efficient, reducing the amount of grain Ukraine can export and raising the cost of moving it.
    Western leaders were quick to condemn the decision, with EU commission President Ursula von der Leyen accusing Russia of a “cynical move”, adding that Brussels was trying to “ensure food security for the world’s vulnerable”.
    The Kremlin’s announcement came just hours after Ukraine claimed responsibility for an attack on a bridge in Crimea that killed two civilians.
    Mr Peskov said Russia letting the deal expire was unrelated to the attack. “Before this attack, the position was declared by President Putin”, he told reporters in Moscow.

  10. The UN needs to get rid of the unanimous agreement provision for decisions out of the Security Council.  IMHO it is stupid and counter productive.  

  11. Poobah, correct me if I’m wrong but Hitler was elected as Chancellor in 1933 and thereafter consolidated power by merging chancellor and president and enlarged his power, introduced censorship and terminated civil liberties, kinda like what SFB is talking about. those who don’t learn from history…

  12. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/kerry-kennedy-rebukes-brother-rfk-jr-linked-covid-19-jewish-people-rcna94718

    “His statements do not represent what I believe or what Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights stand for, with our 50+-year track record of protecting rights and standing against racism and all forms of discrimination,” she added.

    At last, a Kennedy is speaking out against Bobby Jr. They need to do more if that. It’s too bad the tRUMPskys are all corrupt and theirs nobody to do the same to Donny.

  13. That NY Times article is terrifying.  The folks at the Lincoln Project need to get on this, and the MSM needs to get off of its keister and make some noise while it still can.  

  16. Thinking about blowing the Kech bridge means thinking the russian invaders will retaliate in many ways.  From what we have seen the Ukraine military plans ahead a bit.  Destroying the bridge means something else is going on that is of higher value.  The “fog of war” is very heavy, covering both sides and a long border. 
     
    A strange statement came a day or so ago by one of the Ukraine mliitary spokesperson about the “cluster” shells.  It went something like when the russians use those the Ukraine will respond with same.  Very confusing because there has been a lot of talk about the invaders already using them.  Strange because the russians are already using poison gases too.  Fog of war.
     
    A good use of cluster shells is to clear a large area of land mines.  Yup, safer than sending land mine clearing rats, or humans.

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