UK Defense Ministry Says Crimean Bridge Explosion Complicates Russia's Logistics Problems

JAKARTA - A British intelligence update on Monday said damage to the main bridge to Crimea caused by an explosion on October 8 complicates the logistics problems faced by Russian troops in southern Ukraine.

"With Russia's presence in Kherson strained, and supply routes through the Crimea declining, the lines of communication through Zaporizhzhia Oblast are becoming more important for the continuation of the Russian occupation," the British Ministry of Defense wrote in a regular bulletin on Twitter.

Russian troops in southern Ukraine are likely to increase the flow of logistical supplies through Mariupol in a bid to compensate for reduced bridge capacity, the update said.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of planning to blow up the main bridge connecting Russia and Crimea, categorically considering it an act of terrorism.

"There is no doubt. This is an act of terrorism aimed at destroying very important civilian infrastructure," President Putin stressed in a video on the Kremlin's Telegram channel.

Although there was no claim of Ukrainian responsibility, officials in Kyiv were 'excited' by the explosion of the bridge that became the main supply route for Moscow's troops in southern Ukraine. The bridge is also the main artery for the port of Sevastopol, where Russia's Black Sea fleet is based.

In response, Russia bombed Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities throughout Monday and Tuesday last week, inflicting deaths and injuries, hitting civilian facilities, cutting off electricity and heat in the country.

In a televised address, President Putin said he had ordered a "massive" long-range strike against Ukrainian energy, command and communications targets, using missiles fired from the air, sea and land. It was in response to what he described as a terrorist attack, the Crimean bridge blast.

Later, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has revealed that the mastermind behind the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge was the head of the Ukrainian military intelligence service, Kirill Budanov (Kyrylo Budanov), while explosives were sent from Odessa via Bulgaria, Georgia and Armenia.

"The Federal Security Service, together with the Investigative Committee, determined that the perpetrators of the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge were the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, its head Kirill Budanov, its employees and agents," the FSB Center for Public Relations told TASS.

The FSB further noted in operational information, the explosive device was disguised in a roll of construction polyethylene wrap on 22 pallets with a total weight of 22.770 kg. The explosive was delivered from the port of Odessa to the Bulgarian town of Ruse in early August.