'Crumbling' Crimea Bridge 'Living Its Final Days', Resistance Group Claims

The Kerch Bridge, a strategically vital structure used by Russia to connect with occupied Crimea, is in need of urgent repairs and cannot survive structural damage, according to a Crimean-based pro-Ukrainian group.

"The Kerch Bridge is living its final days," Atesh, a pro-Kyiv military partisan group of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, said in a post on Telegram on Sunday.

The bridge, opened in 2018 by Russian President Vladimir Putin, serves as a critical supply route for Russia's forces and is crucial to sustaining Moscow's military offensives in southern Ukraine.

Ukraine struck the 19-kilometer (nearly 12-mile) road and rail bridge in October 2022 and again in July 2023. Kyiv has vowed future strikes on the structure as it seeks to recapture the peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Russia has since attempted to fortify the bridge with underwater barriers. Recent reports suggest Moscow has also redeployed air defense systems to shield it from Ukrainian attacks.

"As a result of the damage sustained, the structural elements of the bridge are degrading, leading to the crumbling of its parts," the group said. "The attitude toward its condition is becoming increasingly dismissive, no one pays due attention to it anymore."

Atesh also claimed that the number of air defense systems in occupied Crimea is decreasing, "which makes the bridge even more vulnerable."

Newsweek could not independently verify the claims and has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry via email for comment.

In July, the partisan group said Russia had begun to redeploy its air defenses to protect the Kerch Bridge.

Moscow is "actively redeploying the surviving air defense installations, aircraft, radars and all military facilities from the western part of Crimea," it said at the time.

Crimean Wind, a pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel, separately said on August 28 that Russia had deployed one of its Pantsir-S1 air defense systems to defend the structure. It published satellite imagery of the air defense system.

"Russia has placed a Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile system right on the Kerch Bridge. It has been visible on satellite images for at least a month," Crimean Wind said. Newsweek could not independently verify the images.

Russia's Pantsir-S1 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun and missile system is designed for use against aircraft, cruise missiles, precision-guided munitions and for supporting other air defense units against larger strikes. It is believed to be worth in the area of $15 million.

Ukraine's most recent attack on the bridge in July 2023 damaged its crucial railway, contrary to Russian claims at the time that the attack affected only the roadway on spans of the structure, satellite photos obtained by Newsweek revealed.

A spokesperson for Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) said in April that another strike on the bridge was "inevitable."

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