According to the head of Ukraine’s main intelligence agency, a Ukrainian sea drone attack on Russia’s Crimean bridge in July had a significant impact on naval operations, forcing Russia to rely on ferries to transport weaponry. Vasyl Maliuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), claimed in a video broadcast that the attack disrupted operations on Europe’s longest bridge and challenged the idea of Russian invincibility.
Maliuk stated, “We have practically overturned the philosophy of naval operations,” in the first of a series of televised documentaries called “SBU, the Special Operations of Victory.” He also declared, “We have destroyed the myth of Russian invincibility. The country is a fake. The bridge is doomed. Plenty of surprises lie ahead and not just the Crimean bridge.”
The attack, authorized by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, involved five “Sea Baby” seaborne drones remotely controlled from Kyiv. Video clips depicted a fiery explosion on the bridge, with technicians celebrating the result in a control room. The documentary reported that six of eight supporting structures were destroyed, forcing Russian forces to switch to ferries for supplying their troops.
While Russia claimed the July attack killed two people, traffic has continued on the bridge. Repair work is ongoing, as the bridge was completed with much fanfare in 2018, four years after Moscow annexed the peninsula.
This attack on the bridge is just one of several Ukrainian offensive actions in the Black Sea, including a missile assault on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol in September. President Zelenskiy has also claimed that Ukraine has forced Russia’s naval fleet to retreat in the Black Sea thanks to the use of naval drones.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksandr Kozhukhar; Editing by Josie Kao)
