As it became known, the Crimean bridge, which connects Russia with the annexed peninsula, suffered a catastrophic explosion. At the moment, information about the “culprit” of the disaster is conflicting. Some news agencies are talking about sabotage, while others are talking about unconfirmed information.
The explosion destroyed one lane of the highway and caused serious damage to the railway line used to transport goods. Essentially, the only channel of communication with Crimea has been out of “battle” for an unknown period of time. Transport can now only be done by watercraft.
Be that as it may, if we adopt the scenario of sabotage by the Ukrainians, it is worth looking back at the recent past and the Russian claims that the bridge crossing Kerch could not be destroyed.
Russian media reported on the multiple means of protecting the bridge. Two A/A regiments of S-400 systems, Tor and Pantsir systems, etc. According to the same sources, Russian divers are patrolling the waters around the bridge, while they estimated that it would take half a ton of explosives, carried by Ukrainian divers, to destroy it. Defenses even include trained dolphins.
There are also floating vehicles, electronic sensors, sonar, and even sonar weapons, which would prohibit an approach of less than 100 meters. In addition, there are electronic warfare systems, frequent drone flights, and a generally seemingly impenetrable system. The bridge is also guarded by units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Black Sea Fleet and the Coast Guard of the FSB Border Service. Additional personnel, speedboats armed with machine guns and grenade launchers, as well as portable A/A systems, guarantee the safe guarding of the bridge.
All this in theory. In practice, if the Ukrainians did sabotage the bridge, the guarding was lacking and the above means of protection existed only in the imagination of the Russians. Otherwise, the Ukrainians achieved a sabotage that will go down in history.
