Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Russian sources report that today's Ukrainian strike on the Kerch Bridge to Crimea failed to damage the bridge itself due to the successful operation of protective structures around the bridge supports.⬇️

https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1929859143394816115

2/ According to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, a Russian source says that "the attack on the Crimean Bridge began today with a strike by a 'test' underwater drone. The drone reached its target, but failed to blow up the support due to the anti-drone flame arrester."

3/ The "anti-drone flame arrester" (противодронового пламегасителя) appears to be the term for the fence-like circular structure seen to the left of the bridge support. VChK-OGPU describes it as a type of sacrificial protection: "one such arrester is designed for one strike."

4/ The attack appears to have targeted the most vulnerable part of the bridge, the main span over the shipping channel (coordinates 45.307947, 36.507014). The same protective structures can clearly be seen from a satellite view. The one that was hit was approximately 13m wide.

5/ The channel reports: "The protection was penetrated, but the [bridge] support was not damaged. The drone was indeed filled with a large charge of explosives - part of the protective device flew out of the water 40 meters up and landed on the bridge."

6/ "Because of this, traffic on the crossing was blocked for some time today."

The drone attack is likely to have been an experimental attempt to see if the bridge's protective measures could be penetrated. On this occasion, they seem to have been effective.

7/ It's not clear whether Ukraine's claim to have planted 1,100 kg of explosives on the bridge relates to the drone attack. The attack is reported to have been carried out using a new 1,000 km-range underwater drone called 'Marichka'.

https://x.com/Kedar_speaks88/status/1929877661716812128

8/ If the 1,100 kg figure is indeed the size of the drone's warhead, it would make it the largest conventional warhead ever carried by an underwater weapon – the Japanese Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedo in World War II had a 780 kg warhead. /end

Source:
t.me/rucriminalinfo…