Ukraine Promises ‘Surprises’ in Store for Crimean Bridge

The head of Ukraine’s main intelligence agency has promised that Kyiv has “plenty of surprises” in store for the Kerch Strait Bridge, which connects Russia with annexed Crimea.

Vasyl Maliuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said on Friday that the bridge, which has twice been struck by Kyiv’s forces, is “doomed”, as he added that Ukraine will destroy the structure.

The Kerch Strait Bridge serves as a key supply route for Russia’s forces and is Moscow’s sole land link with Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Putin in 2014.

Ukraine struck the 19-kilometer (12-mile) road and rail bridge in October 2022 and again in July this year. The bridge, which has a four-lane roadway for vehicles and a railway bridge with two tracks, is crucial to sustaining Moscow’s military offensives in southern Ukraine. Satellite photos obtained by Newsweek show that the railway was damaged by Kyiv’s second strike.

Retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, former commanding general of United States Army Europe, previously told Newsweek that the targeting of the bridge is part of Kyiv’s multi-domain counteroffensive to reclaim occupied territories, including Crimea.

Black smoke billows from a fire on the Kerch Strait Bridge, after a truck exploded, near Kerch, on October 8, 2022. The head of Ukraine’s main intelligence agency promised Kyiv has “plenty of surprises” in store for the important structure. -/AFP/Getty Images

“There will be many surprises in the future. And not only regarding the Crimean bridge. The bridge is doomed,” Maliuk said on Friday in the first of a series of televised documentaries called SBU, the Special Operations of Victory.

Ukraine has “practically overturned the philosophy of naval operations,” Maliuk added. “We have destroyed the myth of Russian invincibility. The country is a fake.”

Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Foreign Ministry for comment via email.

Responding to Maliuk’s threats, retired Colonel Yuri Knutov, the director of the Museum of Air Defense Forces (ADF), told Russian newspaper Izvestia that “the majority of Ukrainians do not believe in these fairy tales.” Knutov added that he believed the warning is a bluff.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said last month that the Kerch Strait Bridge has become a significant security burden for Moscow.

“Although fully operational, use of the bridge remains restricted due to procedures enacted following the first Ukrainian attack in October 2022. Trucks and fuel supplies continue to be moved by ferry,” British defense officials said in October 2023.

Although the bridge will remain a vital link in sustaining Russia’s occupation of Crimea and its forces in southern Ukraine, the U.K. officials said that it is now “almost certainly a significant security burden requiring multi-domain protection, including the use of air defence systems and crews who would otherwise be deployed elsewhere.”

The British Defense Ministry added: “Russian security forces’ confidence in their ability to protect this large and vulnerable structure will continue to be threatened by the ingenuity of Ukraine’s military and security services.”

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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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