A Bridge Too Far: As the Ukraine Grain Deal Runs Out, a Water Drone Attack Damages Crimea Bridge Killing 2 Civilians and Wounding a Child – Russian Officials Call for Hard Retaliations

At 3am Moscow time of this Monday, a suspected surface water drone filled with explosives hit the Crimea bridge. The ’emergency’ led to the closing of the passage.

Eyewitnesses report on the Russian Telegram channels that, at the time of the attack, the sounds of explosions were heard. Powerful explosions thundered at 3:04 and 3:20. At the same time, the movement of cars stopped. Footage shows the drivers leaving the vehicles.

The Ministry of Transport of Russia stated that from the side of the Republic of Crimea there is damage to the roadway on the spans of the Crimean bridge.

One span of roadbed is known to have been destroyed

The span structures themselves are on their supports . The survey of the condition of the bridge is ongoing.

VIDEO: This is how the Crimean bridge looked in the morning – a column of smoke rose from the side of one of the supports.

The Ukrainian commander of the ground forces of the Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrsky, hinted in advance to the attack on the Crimean bridge.

A post appeared on his Telegram channel the day before, which said that a ‘lullaby’ was being prepared for the ‘occupiers’.

The strike hit a civilian infrastructure seems to be a diversion of the attention from the defeats at the front, both in the Kupyansky and Zaporozhye directions, where events for the Armed Forces of Ukraine are going badly.

The Ministry of Health of the Krasnodar Territory confirmed that as a result of an emergency on the Crimean bridge, two people died and a minor girl was injured

A 14-year old girl is hospitalized in a critical condition and both her parents are dead. The father was a truck driver and the mother was a council worker from Belgorod.

Russians immediately started demanding retaliation online.

Ukrainian lawmaker Alexey Goncharuk called the attack a ‘victory for Ukraine’, and seeks to award everyone involved in the terror attack.

Russia’s NAC (National Anti-Terrorism Committee) qualified the incident as a terrorist attack, where two Ukrainian surface drones damaged the motorway part of the bridge.

The railway line was not affected by the attack.

This is the second attack on the Crimean bridge: last October, Ukrainian security services staged an explosion on the bridge, collapsing two spans and killing four civilians.

The deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, has reacted to the explosion on the Crimean bridge:

“The world and our own experience show that terrorists cannot be fought with international sanctions, intimidation or exhortation. They only understand the language of force. Only personal and totally inhuman methods.

That is why it is necessary to blow up their own homes and those of their relatives. To search for and liquidate their accomplices, to abandon the mundane idea of their trial. But the main thing is to destroy the top leadership of terrorist formations, wherever these insects hide.

It is difficult, but it is possible.”

Sputnik reported:

“Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on the Crimean Bridge terror attack:

▪The Kremlin has no illusions about the West’s possible involvement in the terrorist attack on the bridge;

▪The attack on Crimean Bridge didn’t affect the grain deal’s extension;

▪The Kremlin knows who is behind the attack, and is aware of Kiev’s insidious nature;

▪President Putin handed down instructions to start repairs and restoration work on the Crimean Bridge;

 ▪The response to the Crimean Bridge terror attack will be the fulfillment of all the objectives of the special operation still in progress

 ▪Vladimir Putin will hold a video conference around 19:00 (Moscow time) to discuss the Crimean Bridge terror incident. The Crimean government will report on the situation from the scene;

▪Russia does not seek to develop relations with the West but maintains channels of dialogue because they are necessary; 

▪As far as tourism security in Crimea goes, authorities must remain vigilant and take all necessary measures”

Russian lawmaker Volodin: the Crimean Bridge terrorist attack may have been carried out using the safe passage of the now defunct Black Sea grain corridor.

This is a developing story.