Tons of news about the Russo-Ukrainian War this week, including Ukraine hitting the Kerch Strait Bridge again, this time with underwater charges.
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) says it has managed to strike the Crimea bridge with underwater explosives following an operation lasting “several months”.
The SBU said its agents had “mined the supports” of the bridge with 1,100kg of explosives which “severely damaged” the bottom level of the supports.
The “first explosive device” was activated early Tuesday morning “without any civilian casualties”, the SBU added. The information shared by the SBU could not be immediately verified.
Russian media initially said the bridge was briefly closed to traffic but that it had reopened by 10:00 local time (08:00 GMT).
However, later in the day, local authorities warned the bridge was closed again.
Unconfirmed reports on social media said more explosions had occurred around the structure.
The official Telegram channel sharing operational updates about the bridge said: “We ask those on the bridge and in the inspection zone to remain calm and follow the instructions of the transport security officers.”
Russia has not yet commented on Tuesday morning’s attack but Russian military bloggers speculated that an underwater drone, rather than explosive, had hit a protective barrier.
The SBU said its director, Lieutenant General Vasyl Malyuk, personally supervised the operation and coordinated its planning.
In a Telegram post, it quoted Malyuk as saying Ukraine had hit the Crimea bridge in 2022 and 2023 and was therefore “continuing this tradition under water.”
Coverage of the 2022 strike can be found here, and the 2023 strike was covered here.
“No illegal Russian facilities have a place on the territory of our state,” Malyuk said.
“Therefore, the Crimean Bridge is an absolutely legitimate target, especially considering that the enemy used it as a logistical artery to supply its troops.”
Suchomimus has footage:
It’s been a big week for Ukrainian special operations. Some members of Russian counterintelligence must be jumping out of their skins about now…
Tags: Crimea, Kerch Strait Bridge, rail, Russia, Russo-Ukrainian War, Suchomimus, Ukraine, video
The Ukrainians claim to have used over 1,100+ kg of TNT, but the explosion shown in the video does not reflect this. Probably more like 50 kg. Larger quantities of TNT detonated underwater create a characteristic spherical cap shaped bloom on the surface, such as depth charges make. No bloom is evident in this video. The water depth under the Kerch Bridge is only 9 meters (about 30 feet), so the Ukrainians are lying about the force of this attack.
If there were any real damage to the pilings, the railway deck would be out of alignment and traffic would not have resumed. Piling repair is an established technology and can be effected quickly. Concrete pilings are jacketed and/or grouted. Steel pilings are twinned and/or welded. These operations can take place without interrupting bridge operations unless there is really serious damage.
Lots of good WW II depth charge videos on YouTube show the surface effects of 50 kg to 150 kg TNT equivalent charges going off underwater at various depths. They all show much more geyser and bloom that the Ukrainian charge affixed to the Kerch Bridge pier.
“Now I’m not an engineering or a bridging expert…”
Never fear, Suchomimus, Comrade Cartridge is here to explain that a drone boat bomb has the same blast signature as a subsurface explosion. We will subsequently be treated to a “just so” story about Russian technological prowess. In short, “‘Ti’s a mere flesh wound.”
This may be little more than a probing attack, a prequel to the main attraction. The real show will likely involve Taurus cruise missiles.
“It’s been a big week for Ukrainian special operations. Some members of Russian counterintelligence must be jumping out of their skins about now…”
It ought to be a long, hot summer in Mariupol. Partisan moral will be lifted by these attacks and encouraged to participate in sabotage and subtrefuge. You get the sense that the center of gravity has shifted and security forces will be hard pressed to check all the vehicles that could be transporting armed quadcopters. While the FSB busy themselves with vehicle traffic, partisans will go quietly afoot to their appointed tasks..
“Never fear, Suchomimus, Comrade Cartridge is here to explain that a drone boat bomb has the same blast signature as a subsurface explosion. We will subsequently be treated to a “just so” story about Russian technological prowess. In short, “‘Ti’s a mere flesh wound.”
Russians destroyed all the British USVs Ukraine launched in this attack on Kerch with Lancet drones. Videos are posted at Telegram by @russian_airborne:
Объективный контроль уничтожения одного из БЭКов оператором БПЛА «Ланцет» в ходе отражения сегодняшних атак противника!
USV blast signature on the surface of water is the inverse of a subsurface water explosion, by the way. The blast wave presses a spherical cap into the water’s surface, with a gas spike at the center.
“Now I’m not an engineering or a bridging expert…”
I finally figured out your “rail bridge” comment. You crossed wires and were referring to my discussion of soil mechanics as they relate to abutting vehicle launched bridges (VLB). These are military emergency bridges carried on tracked vehicles, used to convey other vehicles over small obstacles like drainage ditches. Nothing to do with rails or railroads.
You need cognitive therapy.
[…] HMM: Ukraine Hits Kerch Strait Bridge Again. […]
The Ukrainians claim to have used over 1,100+ kg of TNT, but the explosion shown in the video does not reflect this. Probably more like 50 kg.
The article explicitly says that this was the first of several explosions. So it’s incredibly obvious why this doesn’t look like 1,100 kg of explosives as that’s the purported total mass of all the mines taken together. How many mines were set and what were their sizes, and what percentage of them went off? I don’t know, you don’t know, but that doesn’t stop you from immediately jumping to the pre-determined conclusion that the Ukrainians are lying. They almost surely are, to some degree or another. It’s equally certain that so are the Russians, to some degree or another. But your bias is as painfully obvious as that of either Russian or Ukrainian Pravda. The only thing totally trustworthy is the utter predictability of the slant applied.
“The article explicitly says that this was the first of several explosions. So it’s incredibly obvious why this doesn’t look like 1,100 kg of explosives as that’s the purported total mass of all the mines taken together. ”
There was only one explosion. Russian frogmen have completed their survey of the Kerch Bridge piers and found no further explosive devices in the vicinity of the bridge.
There is an outside possibility that OD Napoleon and his flacks were adding in the explosives on the three USVs that the Russians destroyed in Black Sea, However, this still makes no sense because the British three USVs were probably carrying, cumulatively, 15,000 kg of explosives.
“But your bias is as painfully obvious as that of either Russian or Ukrainian Pravda. The only thing totally trustworthy is the utter predictability of the slant applied.”
+1
I took me a while to realuze that 10×25 is an unapologetic Russian shill. Since then,, I have challenged his every assertion But just thus once, he seems to be correct about the feeble nature of the explosive charge..
[…] A lot of news out of Ukraine in the last week+ besides the bomber strikes and the Kerch Strait Bridge attack. […]