“God loves the Trinity,” said Ukrainian intelligence leader Vasyl Malyuk, in a boastful of the third attack by kyiv Kerch Bridge, but he could also have talked about the number of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been treated in recent days.
Malyuk said Tuesday’s strike on the deck connecting Crimea to Russia was months in planning and came to the heels of a drone operation, which, according to kyiv, had withdrawn a third of the fleet of plane bombers in Russia.
The shot of Ukrainian drones had left the managers of the Kremlin “angry and alarmed” on the vulnerability of an air fleet accumulated nuclear far from the battlefield, Bloomberg reported.
Meanwhile, the Russian investigation committee launched an investigation into terrorism on the collapse of two bridges in the border region following incidents likely to put pressure on the Russian president.
“It is certainly a bad week for the Russian people and for the Russian army,” said the American vice-ad retreat Robert Murrett Nowsweek.
Putin has experienced several bad weeks during her large -scale invasion, such as the destruction of the Black Sea fleet lighthouse Moscow In April 2022, Russia’s retirement from Kherson in November of the same year and the foray for Ukraine in the Kursk region in August 2024.
Oleg Ignatov of the international crisis group said Nowsweek This week’s incidents have given the worst setback for Putin for 2025 in terms of military damage and the impact on public morale.
Nowsweek contacted the Kremlin to comment.
Mikhail Svetlov / Getty images
Why it matters
Ukraine drone attacks against military aerodromes deep in Russian territory and the targeting of the bridge, which serves as a symbol of Moscow’s occupation of Crimea, offers a boost and possible lever effect for kyiv in the midst of peace talks that the Russian president was accused of blocking.
What to know
According to Ukraine, two bridges collapsed in the Western regions of Russia bordering Ukraine, killing at least seven people and injuring dozens, according to local authorities.
It is not clear if their causes are or whether the two collapses are even linked or, but the Russian investigation committee said they were investigated as potential terrorist attacks.
Ignatov, senior analyst of the crisis group for Russia, said that Ukraine was probably behind sabotage attacks targeting bridges, although kyiv did not comment on incidents.
In an incident in the Vygonichi district of Bryansk, about 60 miles from the Ukrainian border, a road bridge made it possible to crush the moving train and hurt at least 66 people, the Russian authorities reported. Bryansk governor Alexander Bogomaz said the bridge was “exploded”.
In another incident on the night of Sunday, a bridge collapsed in the Kursk region while a freight train passed over, injuring one of the drivers, according to the acting governor in the region.
In a third incident that evening, a Russian military freight train was exploded near the occupied city of Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, according to the defense of Ukraine.
Operation Enoured
On the eve of the talks in Istanbul between Russia and Ukraine, the Ukraine Security Service (SBU) launched a drone attack across Russia.
The targets were Olenya’s air base in the Russia Murmansk region, the Diaghilev air base in the Ryazan region, Ivanovo air base in the Ivanovo region and Belaya air base in the Irkutsk region more than 2,500 miles from the Ukraine border.
Nicknamed the Spiderweb operation, 18 -month -old attacks in planning saw 117 drones launched from hidden trucks, hit 41 aircraft, disabled a third of Russia’s strategic bombers fleet and inflicted $ 7 billion in damage, Kyiv.
Zev Faintuch, head of research and information for the international security company Global Guardian, said Nowsweek The operation was a huge intelligence coup and probably not a single-off.
He said that this operation can be considered a decision to open in a strategic campaign involving deception, secret prepositioning and strategic psychological war.
Ukraine can have much more of these attended containers ready with hundreds or thousands of drones for subsequent attacks, and even if it was not the case, the Russians are now on the lookout, Fainuch added.
Murrett, deputy director of the Syracuse University Institute for Security Policy and Law, said Nowsweek This from a tactical military point of view, these are very effective attacks that had brought an important blow to the Moscow military machine.
He declared that Ukraine demonstrates new tactics and what he describes as war fighting from the 21st century which have an impact far beyond their borders.
Sources close to Russian officials have told Bloomberg that damage to war aircraft, including targets on Tu-160, Tu-95 and Tu-22 M3 “bombers are likely to vibrate the decision-makers around Putin”.
Attack on the Kerch bridge
One day after the Russian drone operation, Malyuk, head of the Ukraine Security Service (SBU), said that his agents had extracted support from the Kerch bridge which is a path of supply and critical transport for the forces of Moscow.
He suggested that the structural integrity of the bridge is in critical condition after 1,100 kilograms (nearly 2,500 pounds) from explosives in TNT equivalent to explode the early hours of Tuesday.
Planet Labs PBC
The SBU released an image of the bridge which did not indicate damage to the road. Russian pro-Russian millentens have circulated images that showed another striking of the naval drone against the bridge on Tuesday afternoon.
Yuriy Boyechko, CEO of Hope for Ukraine, who provides aid to the country torn apart by war, said that drone attacks and the explosion of the Kerch bridge had undergone the image of Putin.
“The damage that was caused on Sunday in the Russian Air Force could only be possible with tactical nuclear weapons,” he told Newsweek, adding that the biggest headache for the Kremlin was now to determine if other military sites are vulnerable to a new Ukrainian attack.
What people say
Ukrainian intelligence chief Vasyl Malyuk: “God loves the Trinity, and the SBU always ends what it starts. We hit the Crimean bridge in 2022 and 2023. Today, we continued this tradition – this time underwater.”
Robert Murrett, retired American vice-admiral: “Putin has experienced several bad weeks. It is certainly a bad week for the Russian people and for the Russian army.”
Yuriy Boyechko, CEO of the non -profit organization Hope for Ukraine: “For Putin, it’s personal because he is a former FSB agent and is preceded by an old comic strip [Volodymyr Zelensky]. Putin will react by increasing strikes on civilian targets in Ukraine, but that’s all he can do for the moment. “”
What happens next
Ukraine’s drone attack on Russian aerodromes was probably intended to disrupt the position of the Kremlin that it has the upper hand and can dictate the terms of any peace agreement, according to Ignatov of the Crisis group. “It is an attempt to change the story that Ukraine is gradually losing war,” he said.
