Last saturday, Ukrainian forces bombed the Kerch bridge, tampering Russia’s supply line with Crimea. The Kremlin immediately retaliated hitting civilian targets in Ukraine.
The war in Ukraine escalates by the hour, as the Ukrainian counter-offensive continues and keeps taking village after village around the city of Kherson. Russian forces might even be forced to abandon the city, the only major center conquered since the invasion of Ukraine started last February.
Russia seems to be receiving humiliation after humiliation, a scenario that might tickle them to use the nuclear bomb. Even US President Joe Biden admitted that a “nuclear armageddon” is a real possibility. This is why Russia illegally annexed the four occupied regions, to have a “legal ground” upon which to use the atomic bomb.
But this has not intimidated Ukraine at all. Kyiv has called Russia’s bluff and not only continued with its counter-offensive but also bombed the Kerch bridge. This is the only land connection between Russia and Crimea, the Ukrainian region occupied in 2014. It was inaugurated by Putin himself and is crucial to ensure supply lines with the occupation force in Crimea.
Supply wins wars, and so far Russia seems to be struggling under constant Ukrainian sabotage. The Kerch bridge, according to Russian sources, will be repaired in a few days, but supply lines from Russia might be tampered for a longer time.
Nevertheless, it was a massive tactical win by Ukraine, which demonstrated its capabilities to defeat Russian defenses. The Kerch bridge was heavily guarded by anti-air guns and other defense systems, none of which managed to stop the Ukrainian attack.
Russia’s retaliation
Putin was furious. He immediately called the strike on the Kerch bridge a “terrorist attack” and answered with heavy bombings on the city of Zaporizhzhia already on Sunday. This assault killed 13 people, including one child, and injured 89.
On Monday, Russia hit for the first time in months Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and other important centers like Lviv, Ternopil and Dnipro. These attacks, which used to be very common in the early stages of the war, had almost disappeared in recent months. The Ukrainian counter-offensives forced Russians to concentrate forces and not waste precious ammo on far-away civilian targets.
The reason for these strikes is therefore a clear retaliation for the attack on the Kerch bridge, which in fairness is also a civilian infrastructure. Despite its mainly military use (especially since the war started), it was open to civilian traffic for some hours every day, and some sources report that at least three people were killed in the explosion.
The war in Ukraine is becoming really ugly. Russia set the precedent with the horrific war crimes in occupied territories, such as the massacres of Bucha, Lyman and the frightening siege of Mariupol. Now that it’s losing territory left and right, violent acts might become more and more common as both sides try to hold their ground.
