Ukrainian authorities demand the destruction of the bridge over the Kerch Strait, built by Russia after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and linking the Russian Federation to the captured peninsula. “It is fixed in international law: Crimea is Ukraine. Therefore, this bridge is a banal object of illegal construction, permission for the construction of which Ukraine did not give. It harms the ecology of the peninsula, therefore, it must be dismantled. Voluntarily or no, it doesn’t matter,” he wrote on Wednesday, August 17, on the Twitter microblog, adviser to the head of the Cabinet of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak.

In an interview published the day before with Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Podolyak said Ukraine considers the 19-kilometer Crimean bridge, personally commissioned by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018, as a legitimate military target. “This is an illegal construction and the main gate to supply the Russian army in Crimea. These facilities must be destroyed,” Podolyak emphasized. He also announced “in the next two or three months” further attacks on targets in Crimea, without confirming that the Ukrainian Armed Forces were behind the blasts near Dzhankoy and at the air base near the village of Gvardeyskoye. “Our strategy is to destroy logistics, supply lines, ammunition depots and other military infrastructure. This will create chaos in your own forces,” explained the adviser to the head of the Cabinet of the President of Ukraine.

Explosions in Crimea

In recent days, the situation in the annexed Crimea has worsened. On August 9, there were explosions at the Novofedorovka military airfield near the town of Saki, located more than 200 km from the nearest front line. The airfield is used as an air base for the RF Ministry of Defense; planes and helicopters, including naval aviation, are based here. According to Ukrainian media, the airfield was repeatedly used by aircraft that attacked the territory of Ukraine. In Kyiv they announced the destruction of Russian military aircraft, in Moscow they claim that Russian military equipment was not damaged during the blasts.

On August 16, there was an explosion at an ammunition depot in the village of Mayskoye, near Dzhankoy, and a fire at the Dzhankoy transformer substation, which is one of the main power centers on the Crimean peninsula. After that, the emergency zone was cordoned off, locals were evacuated, and Russian tourists began to leave the Ukrainian peninsula in droves. Moscow announced sabotage but did not name those responsible for the blast.

At the same time, Kyiv does not confirm or deny that the explosions in Crimea were the result of attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.