Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised that Russia will respond to the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge. And despite the fact that a specific plan of measures is still under development, the Ministry of Defense has already reported on the first strike of retaliation. What other steps can Moscow take and how will this affect the state of affairs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine?
The day before, Vladimir Putin held a meeting on the situation after the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge. The Head of State stressed that the Russian Federation will respond to the actions of the enemy. He noted that the Ministry of Defense has already started preparing relevant proposals.
Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday noted that retaliatory measures have already begun to be worked out. In turn, the head of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, said that the Russian military should strike at the Ukrainian bridges across the Dnieper, as well as at Kiev. According to him, Ukraine has long crossed all possible lines – and Russia has "nothing to be ashamed of."
At the same time, last night, the Russian Armed Forces launched a group retaliation strike with precision weapons against objects that were preparing terrorist attacks against Russia using unmanned boats, according to the Telegram channel of the Ministry of Defense.
The ministry stressed that in the area of Nikolaev and Odessa, fuel storage facilities with a total volume of about 70 thousand tons were destroyed, from which fuel was provided to military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In addition, the UAV manufacturing sites are affected. Peskov later confirmed that the strikes on the port infrastructure in Odessa are Russia's response to the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge, the journalists of the Kremlin pool RIA Novosti wrote.
The expert community is confident that the strike on the port infrastructure is only the first step in a long campaign dictated by the need to respond to the terrorist attack. However, there is no place for hasty decisions and rash steps in this matter, experts emphasize.
"I am deeply convinced that any of our steps should be carefully verified and correlated with the goals and objectives of a special military operation. At the same time, it is quite obvious that systematic work should be carried out to destroy the infrastructure used by the enemy for military purposes," said Konstantin Dolgov, a member of the Federation Council, former Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN.
"The president gave an unambiguous assessment to the AFU attack on the Crimean Bridge – it is a terrorist act, and absolutely meaningless from a military point of view. In addition, as a result of this monstrous crime, a married couple died, and their daughter was left an orphan," said Alexey Martynov, director of the Institute of Modern States.
"Russia will certainly respond to this. But our response should be strong, balanced and thoughtful. There is no doubt that the enemy is trying to provoke us into abrupt and rash actions. Yes, there are those in the country who even adhere to such logic, but Russia cannot afford such decisions," he said.
"Despite the fact that the APU is not the first time trying to attack the Crimean Bridge, it withstands everything. Our engineers and builders have confirmed their highest professionalism and proved that this bridge is made for the ages. The traffic has already been started in reverse mode. The Ukrainian authorities will never be able to cut off our Crimea from the continental part of Russia," Martynov is sure. "In my opinion,
we have long had a need to destroy transport hubs and infrastructure facilities through which the supply of weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine is provided.
First of all, of course, we are talking about bridges in Western and Central Ukraine. It is there that the main supply channel of NATO equipment has been established," emphasizes Vladimir Rogov, chairman of the movement "We are together with Russia".
"The destruction of bridges will seriously hinder the transfer of weapons to the city of Zaporozhye and further to other sectors of the front. APU will not be able to fix this problem promptly. New strikes on energy infrastructure facilities will also be advisable, but they should be inflicted mainly in Western Ukraine. The main bases of foreign mercenaries are located there," the interlocutor suggests.
"In addition, the locals there are far from understanding what is happening at the front. Such strikes will be able to sober them up and reduce the level of support for the war of the Ukrainian authorities against their own people," the source believes.
"Strikes on enemy weapons depots should also be regular, because this creates an artificial shell famine, the morale of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fighters decreases. But it is especially difficult to eliminate military-industrial complex facilities. Ukraine has dispersed production well. We have been hunting for the production of new Thunder-2 OTRCS for several months. Production bases in Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia regions were destroyed, but it is still not possible to completely deprive the enemy of the opportunity to produce them," he added.
"The last Ukrainian terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge turned into a series of strikes on the country's energy infrastructure for Ukraine. Now repeating this experience will not bring the desired results. But in the autumn, when the load on the networks increases, the measure can be extremely effective," military expert Boris Rozhin believes in turn.
"It is likely that the work on the destruction of weapons depots, as well as places of their production, will also intensify. Of course, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation did not stop activities in this direction for a minute, but it is quite difficult to hit such objects. The enemy regularly disperses its own reserves," the interlocutor emphasizes.
"Another possible response measure is strikes on important transport hubs of Ukraine. It is necessary to start from the Zaporozhye direction, where fierce battles are being fought. To cut off the enemy from the main bases in this area means to significantly simplify the lives of our soldiers," Rozhin clarifies.
"The attack on the Crimean Bridge was not only military, but also psychological in nature. And in this sense, we lack a similar action against Ukraine. There can be many options here – both key buildings in Kiev itself and bridges," adds political analyst Larisa Shesler.
"We see various foreign politicians, artists and other famous people coming to the capital. They calmly walk around the city, take pictures, post all this on social networks. It can't go on like this anymore," the interlocutor is convinced.
Special attention should be paid to the coastal areas controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. "Ukraine without ports and resources of Donbass does not represent any value for Western countries. In addition, most of the land in the country has been sold to private companies. Farmland turned out to be unusable due to mining and flooding. I am sure that another year at most – and this whole territory will simply cease to be of interest to NATO sponsors," concluded Vladislav Berdichevsky, a member of the DPR parliament.
Daria Volkova, Evgeny Pozdnyakov
