Vladimir Putin’s worst nightmare appears to be on the cusp of becoming a reality after a Western diplomat dropped a major hint in a social media post.
The Russian President seized Crimea back in 2014 as the first move in his plans to conquer Ukraine.
The move initiated a surge of nationalist fervour and support for the Kremlin tyrant at home, conveniently deflecting public anger from domestic economic and social woes.
Crimea has since become a central plank of Putin’s political legitimacy and its loss would likely see his regime crumble, according to many in Russia‘s opposition movement.
Putin commissioned the construction of a bridge to connect the peninsula to the Russian mainland in 2016, which was completed by 2018.
The 19 km bridge has become a vital supply and transport route for Putin’s troops in occupied Crimea and other Russian controlled territories.
As such it is an obvious target for Ukraine‘s military, which seriously damaged the bridge in an attack using Sea Baby drones in October 2022.
Now it appears Zelensky’s generals are once again plotting a daring attack on the critical transport link.
The Lithuanian Ambassador to Sweden published a post to X, hinting that a major attack was in the pipeline.
Linas Linkevičius published a collage with photos of the bridge and a rocket launch.
“If anyone hasn’t had the opportunity to take a photo of the Crimean Bridge, it’s still time,” he wrote.
His post provoked a stinging rebuke from a senior Russian envoy to the United Nations, who said the Lithuanian ambassador would come to bitterly regret his words.
Dmitry Polyansky fumed: “Now they are barking furiously, but they will whine pitifully when the day of judgment comes, and they will regret such missteps.”
Ukraine has received a supply of long range ATACMS missiles with a range of up 300 km from the US in recent weeks and is likely to receive more now that Congress has passed a $61 billion military aid package.
These lethal weapons in theory could allow Kyiv to target the Kerch bridge quite easily.
However, experts consider the best weapon for the job would be Germany’s Taurus missiles, which were designed to hit buried and protected targets, including command posts and bridges.
Unfortunately for Zelensky, Germany’s leader Olaf Scholz has currently ruled that option out and categorically refused to deliver the missiles to Ukraine.