The head of Ukrainian military intelligence has said that Kyiv can use American-supplied long-range weapons to target the bridge linking Crimea with Russia.
The Kerch Bridge has a four-lane road and a double-track railway and links Russia’s Krasnodar region with the peninsula Vladimir Putin illegally annexed in 2014. Over the course of the war started by Putin, the bridge has been a key supply route for Russian forces as well as a symbol of Moscow’s occupation.
Ukraine has scored successes in hitting the 12-mile bridge such as on July 17, 2023, when a strike destroyed part of both the road and railway sections of the bridge. In October 2022, part of it was blown up with an improvised explosive device that had power equivalent to 10 tons of TNT, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.
Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, chief of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR), said in an interview that an attack on the bridge using ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) missiles could sever the link to Russia once and for all.
He told The Philadelphia Inquirer that those who claim ATACMS were not powerful enough to destroy the bridge “should read the technical manuals.”
https://www.newsweek.com/atacms-strikes-russia-crimea-links-budanov-1916910?piano_t=1
He told The Philadelphia Inquirer that those who claim ATACMS were not powerful enough to destroy the bridge “should read the technical manuals.”
He might have added, especially when we have adjusted them.
You would think these “experts” would have learned not to underestimate Ukrainian ability to destroy orcs and their equipment, but they never learn. I have no doubt a plan has been on the table for some time now. When the time is right, I’m sure Budanov will implement it.
I don’t know how many ATACMS it will take to put the putler bridge beyond repair, but one approach would be double tap bombing. A few severe hits at a time; taking down one pier and support section, returning each time to smash the repair teams. Repeat on an ad hoc basis.
Then there will be the putler railway, which will have to be continually hit with lighter munitions, until it’s fucking GONE.
We wouldn’t be having this conversation if Scholtz grew a spine. The bridge would be in pieces now, and Ukraine could concentrate on the rail line from russia.
The F16 can carry 2, 2,000lb bombs, I wonder if that’s what they’re waiting for? Say 10 F16s each carried that, that would be a total of 40,000 lb of munitions. I’m no engineer but it seems that would be enough to knock out some mild steel.
What it can carry and what is supplied are two different things, unless Ukraine have some nice missiles of their own.