politico.eu
Russia closes Crimea bridge — again — after attack on ammo depot
<p>Four days after <a href="https://www.politico.eu/?p=3358053">re-opening</a> the strategic Crimea bridge that links Russia to the occupied Ukrainian peninsula, Moscow was forced to close it again due to another attack.</p>
<p>A drone assault on an ammunition depot in the Krasnogvardeysky district has caused residents within a <a href="https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1682667526973542400" target="_blank">5 kilometer radius</a> of the area to be evacuated, and for rail traffic to be suspended on the Kerch bridge into Crimea. Social media <a href="https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1682667526973542400" target="_blank">reports</a> suggested that an oil depot had been struck in Oktyabr’skiy, south of the town of Krasnogvardeysky and close to an airfield.</p>
<p>The attack was more than 200 kilometers from the bridge, but Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed governor of occupied Crimea, said on <a href="https://t.me/Aksenov82/2885" target="_blank">Telegram</a> that train traffic will be suspended “to minimize risk.” The main rail line from the bridge travels through Crimea and eventually branches around to Krasnogvardeysky, a small town roughly in the center of the Russian occupied territory.</p>
<p>Earlier, Aksyonov reported on an attempted drone raid on infrastructure in the same district, Russian state-owned media TASS <a href="https://tass.ru/proisshestviya/18337373" target="_blank">reported</a>. POLITICO has been unable to verify these reports.</p>
<p>The Kerch bridge, completed in 2018, four years after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s illegal occupation of Crimea, is a critical land route into the peninsula, re-supplying Moscow’s forces fighting in southern Ukraine with troops, weapons and fuel.</p>
<p>Its closure on Saturday is the second in a week, after the bridge was <a href="https://www.politico.eu/?p=3352689">struck</a> by two drones on Monday, killing two civilians and collapsing part of the roadway structure. One lane was re-opened and the rail line continued to operate.</p>
<p>The bridge was also the <a href="https://www.politico.eu/?p=2253706" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">target of an attack</a> during Ukraine’s counteroffensive last October.</p>
<p>Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Aspen security conference in the U.S. on Friday that the Kerch bridge was a military target, according to a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/crimea-bridge-is-legitimate-military-target-zelenskiy-says-2023-07-21/" target="_blank">Reuters</a> report. “This is the route used to feed the war with ammunition and this is being done on a daily basis. And it militarizes the Crimean peninsula,” Zelenskyy said.</p>
<p>“For us, this is understandably an enemy facility built outside international laws and all applicable norms. So, understandably, this is a target for us. And a target that is bringing war, not peace, has to be neutralized,” the Ukrainian leader said, in comments relayed through an interpreter.</p>
<p>No one has yet come forward to take responsibility for this week’s attacks.</p>
