“Maxar in a press release said significant structural damage was apparent on the bridge span that carries vehicle traffic, with several sections having dropped into the water below.
“On the adjacent span that has a rail line, several train rail cars on the bridge span are on fire and a firefighting helicopter is flying toward the bridge,” it added.”
Comment: The people who did this will be back for more bites of the apple to “keep the wound bleeding.” The damage to the self-image of Russians is immense and the Russian ability to withstand UA attacks is greatly weakened by this in conjunction with pressure on the Kharkiv and Kherson fronts.
Further attacks will employ different methodologies.
If Vlad the Impaler II is going to go to Wunderwaffen it will be in reaction to this. pl
Satellite Imagery Shows Structural Damage to Collapsed Crimea Bridge | Newsmax.com
Col. Lang,
Trump called for a negotiated settlement yesterday at a rally. Is that even a possibility at this stage? Or can that only occur after both sides are exhausted?
Sam
Exhausted? Yes, Russia is well on its way to political, and military exhaustion. IMO Ukraine will fight until the Russians are exhausted. Trump is businessman who thinks war, any war, is an obstacle to making money.
One of those old time 15 rounders with a disputed decision. Where they stagger in each other’s arms for rounds 10-15. Ok. Get the lawyers to make the rematch clauses retroactively illegal in every state with two vowels in its name. No one’s ego will be overly bruised. Maybe find a few lawyers for some other folks while you’re shopping. A volcano can be discovered in the Baltic. Concerts.
I’ve checked my nautical charts * and by my estimate of the position of the blast, the water there is only about 25 feet deep (7-8m). With reference to the image, the left hand span failed under the truck when it exploded. The two pieces of that span are still joined by reinforcement and the centre is sitting on the seabed. The right hand span looks like it was pushed or pulled off its right hand mount and the right hand end is on the seabed.
Comment: IMHO, it may be possible to lift and reseat the right hand span and then rig a temporary span for the left.
The Russians are lucky that the blast wasn’t over the arched part over the shipping channel and brought that down – blocking the channel and much more difficult to fix.
The damage to the railway is unknown. Contrary to the beliefs of various internet idiots, the burning diesel fuel can cause major damage if it’s heats the steelwork hotter than around 600C at which. point the heat treated steel will lose its temper as well as possibly distort – in other words it will not carry loads anymore and must be replaced.
Submarines don’t operate in 25 ft water and the pylons look undamageable by anything a small boat or seal could carry. The rail portion of the span can’t be attacked easily by truck bomb, leaving the bridge decking as the most vulnerable target.
* The charts are current. I downloaded the Black Sea region out of curiosity while preparing for our summer cruise in the Adriatic.
The bridge is already operational. The Russian Armed Forces have specialised Railway Troops who inspected and possibly replaced some rails, and trains are running again. The road bridge is opened to light vehicular traffic. Heavy goods vehicles are directed to the ferry terminal, which was the main transport method prior to the bridge opening. An inconvenience, but not a disaster.
As to the driver of the truck, it remains unclear who it was. Some sources say it was the owner of the truck, other sources report that it was a radicalise Syrian. We’ll have to wait until the investigation is completed.
Ferries are clearly the next target
Even less explosive needed to sink a ferry and the need to search each and every vehicle really really carefully creates a logistics nightmare. Want to check each and every diesel fuel tank? Set maximum cargo limits?
Snipers know that it is better to wound 10 than kill 1 unless the one is Gen. Sergei Surovikin. Hey, Sergei, don’t buy green bananas.
Walrus,
“The explosion was caused by the ignition of swamp gas set off by a sun ray reflected off the Planet Venus. Suspects are under interrogation.”
We received a memo including the above paragraph late yesterday morning but have not been authorized to release any further included material at this time.
That Newsmax article also mentions General Surovikin as the new RU Commander in Ukraine. His nickname is “General Armageddon”. Although coming from command of RU Aerospace Forces, his background in the Soviet-Afghan War was in Spetsnaz. And later he was Infantry and Combined Arms in Chechnya.
https://www.shkmgmcnuh.org/russia-general-armageddon-serghei-surovikin-is-the-new-commander-of-the-armed-forces-in-ukraine/5620212022/
https://twitter.com/warmonitor3/status/1579108310711554058?s=21
It would appear that the Ukrainian military was better prepared than the Russian forces. They resisted every move of the Russian army including the decapitation strike on Kyiv and made them grind through their territorial gains. It seems that there was a general intelligence failure on the part of the Russian military establishment as they underestimated Ukrainian military resolve and capabilities.
https://twitter.com/defenceu/status/1579151499086761989?s=21
Do Russian soldiers and their commanders get to see these types of videos from their opponents’ minister of defense?
This project was very personal to Putin too and the destruction will be a personal humiliation. In an alternative future we won’t now see, I expect the bridge would have ended up being named the Vladimir Putin Bridge – or even the Vladimir the Great Bridge. Not now.
Strelkov is characteristically pessimistic that even this will change anything. In a mocking take on Russia’s “red lines” which are ever more evidently meaningless, he has suggested the only real red line is at Novo-Ogaryovo. Novo-Ogaryovo is the residence of the President of the RF in Moscow – kind of like if Camp David was located in the DC ‘burbs. Strelkov’s sardonic wit is perfect for capturing a realist Russian’s perspective on this truly bizarre conflict. In a recent video he compared the Russian leadership to gargoyles who move only when you get real close (the analogy being in response to an extreme event like this attack) but then freeze again as soon as you back away – i.e. as soon as the immediate crisis is over. Someone needs to rid Russia of its gargoyles.
Macdonald’s has sent Burger King their Syrian chef. Five star Michelin ratings are predicted.
F&L
We’ll see, the Michelin stars all belong elsewhere right now. One of the new guy’s first jobs will be to get the other chefs in line and that won’t be easy, as 2 of them are used to doing their own thing in the kitchen. Putin’s personal chef at least seems to do some cooking. The other guy (the bearded one) is a celebrity chef who has his own show and spends all his time doing PR to impress the boss so he can get a raise (he just did). I’ve watched a few episodes of the show on TikTok – it kind of looks like real cooking but you have to remember it’s just a show. Anyhow, he has a new 4 minute promo video out that I’m sure will impress the right people:
https://rutube.ru/play/embed/72c94474b518068ebd2c900296f78387
As always I’ll rely on the reviews from the professional critics – I know a very good one.
“…on this truly bizarre conflict…” Putin was supposed to walk away with this, so said his handler, Klaus Schwab. Now, they’re pulling out their deepest turncoats, like TC, who had been strategically set as the dedicated opposition to kill the deal for good. Now it’s, “please stop so Russia can win,” like we planned. The rot is everywhere, but it will be found out and desiccated. And the Ukrainian, and the Eastern European, and others who have experienced the global communist will lead the way, not Western “school children.”
Cobo; Eastern Europeans have felt Mother Russia’s ire for almost four hundred years. The period 1920 to ’91 was but a moment. As long as the Russians d/n kick western Europe around westerners d/n care. There’s been a change. Eastern Slavs wont “take it” anymore. Russia is learning that. Western Europeans will also have to accept that they are only half of Europe. Divorced since the Renaissance, Westphalia, and the Enlightenment; west meet east
BA there are no Gargoyle hunters in Russia. For the past 100 years Finns, Ukrainians, Balts, Poles, and Czechs have fought losing battles against the Gargoyles but the Russia people didn’t join in. 1917-18 was conceived in Germany and imported into Russia. Its proponents were a committed yet small cadre of true believers; not the common people. Consider what Russia missed; the Renaissance, Westphalia, the Enlightenment. The Czar’s Czecha still exists to frighten the people (kind of like what the American FIB is becoming) w/only a modern name. Free speech, free/dissident press, organized contrary political parties, are absent. A society like Russia doesn’t have Gargoyle killers it has explosions, meh …maybe. Like the communists, Gargoyle killers will have to be imported.
Via Bloomberg the Russian Foreign ministry says they can start Nordstream 2’s second line. I’m sure that’s gonna pressure a few gas short countries in Europe.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-03/gazprom-ready-to-ship-gas-via-shelved-nord-stream-2-pipeline#xj4y7vzkg
And right on cue Bombing Bolton wants Putin assasinated and regime change in Russia:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/watch-john-bolton-calls-putin-assassination-regime-change
As a matter of decency it seems several of those burning rail cars should tumble down to the water taking some of the bridge supports with them.
A “matter of decency?”
Yessir. To fully reward the party responsible for this attack.
Well said.Not enough has been done.There are 2 explosions on the commerative stamp one on either end.