Russia reveals recording of "Germany discussing plan to bomb Crimea bridge"

The editor-in-chief of Russia's RT channel said German military leaders were believed to have discussed a plan to bomb the Crimean bridge.

Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russia's RT channel, today cited a recording released by Russian security officials saying German military leaders allegedly discussed a bridge bombing campaign. Crimea. According to Ms. Simonyan, the recording with the above content is part of a 40-minute conversation between senior officers of the German army.
They also commented that the German military was keeping its distance from the Ukraine conflict, unlike the US and UK, which they said had been "directly involved for a long time", Ms Simonyan stated. Ms. Simonyan said that a request for comment on the above information has been sent to German officials, including the ambassador, the foreign ministry and the prime minister's office.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that German media now have "legitimate reasons to show independence and ask questions" of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. The Crimea Bridge was built between 2016 and 2018 and is the only railway and road link connecting the Crimean peninsula with mainland Russia.

Moscow opened a large land corridor to Crimea after Russia announced the annexation of four regions in Ukraine in the fall of 2022. After the outbreak of conflict between Russia and Ukraine, many Ukrainian officials and commanders, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, threatened to destroy the Crimean bridge, claiming that this bridge was very important for the Russian military.

The Crimean Bridge, 18km long, has been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian naval missiles and drones, but Russia claims most attacks have been repelled. Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out two attacks on the Crimea bridge in October 2022 and July 2023. Civilians were killed in both attacks. Ukrainian officials confirmed that the destruction of the bridge had a military purpose.

Some Western officials also made similar statements about the destruction of the Crimea bridge, such as former US Secretary of Defense and Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Roberts Gates in an interview with the Washington Post last week. .

"If you want Russia to pause, if you want to disrupt the momentum they have, why can't they do things like blow up the bridge across the Kerch Strait?", Mr. Gates said.

Mr. Gates called on Western donors to support Ukraine's ability to carry out this attack, saying that a successful attack would harm Russia "psychologically as well as militarily." Faced with continuous attacks on the Crimea bridge, Moscow mobilized many measures to protect this vital structure.

According to Western intelligence, in addition to existing protective measures, Russia is said to be using many new tactics to prevent weapons from attacking the Crimea bridge. Russia uses air defense systems such as the S-300 and S-400 to counter drones and cruise missiles targeting the bridge.

Russia also mobilized floating barrier systems - equipment commonly used to control oil spills - as a measure to prevent suicide unmanned boats from rushing to the bridge.