Someone blew up a significant section of the bridge from Crimea to Russia. This is a major blow to Putin as that route along with the train tracks right next to it are key to Russian troop movements.

In a major blow for Russian President Vladimir Putin, a huge explosion has severely damaged the only bridge connecting the annexed Crimean peninsula with the Russian mainland, paralyzing a key supply route for Moscow’s faltering war in Ukraine.

The blast early Saturday caused parts of the Kerch Strait road and rail bridge – opened by Putin himself in 2018 – to collapse, images and video from the scene showed. At least three people were killed in the explosion, Russian officials said, citing preliminary information.

The exact cause of the blast at Europe’s longest bridge is yet to be confirmed. Russian officials said a truck exploded, causing Crimea-bound sections of the road part of the bridge to collapse. A subsequent fire engulfed a train of fuel tanks on a separate, adjacent rail portion of the bridge.

The videos of the blast are quite something. 

Desperate regime of @ZelenskyyUa trying hard to escalate to the World War III, bridge from Kerch to Crimea was attacked. To ignite a fuel on passing train they blow the truck. #stopWWIII #ZelenskyWarCriminal pic.twitter.com/MV02hxWLtH

— Igor Lopatonok (@lopatonok) October 8, 2022

Huge blast has taken out sections of Kerch Bridge, Putin’s pet project to connect Russia with occupied Crimea. Its partial destruction could disrupt Russian supply lines for troops in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. But perhaps more than anything, a big, embarrassing hit against Putin. pic.twitter.com/tNgfB6Qt1E

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) October 8, 2022

I’ll admit it. I laughed at this one. 

https://twitter.com/OleksiyDanilov/status/1578636142055870464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1578636142055870464%7Ctwgr%5E9c8a7847dd5940e881ef6a55f6cdaaab5a95e608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mediaite.com%2Fnews%2Fwatch-ukraine-defense-official-taunts-putin-with-spectacular-clip-of-exploding-crimea-bridge-and-marilyn-monroe%2F

At issue are two things with this bridge explosion. 

One: Putin issued some significant threats, including floating the possibility of using nukes, the other week along with signing a sham referendum that annexed four territories within Ukraine. Mere hours and days after that, Russian troops have been driven out of key areas within those territories. 

Two: Crimea has been under Russian rule since the Obama Administration. If, as some people are suggesting, this is a move by Ukraine to take over Crimea, is that really a good tactical move given Crimea is more Russian than Ukraine at this point. 

Furthermore, it seems that there are rumblings from within Putin’s inner circle in recent days. Rumblings that seemingly don’t bode well for Putin. 

A member of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle has voiced disagreement directly to the Russian president in recent weeks over his handling of the war in Ukraine, according to information obtained by U.S. intelligence.

The criticism marks the clearest indication yet of turmoil within Russia’s leadership over the stewardship of a war that has gone disastrously wrong for Moscow, forcing Putin last month to order the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of troops in a desperate bid to reverse recent battlefield losses.

The criticism of Putin’s push to continue the war and the Russian military’s mismanagement was significant enough to be put into Biden’s daily briefing. Which does make me wonder if that was what led to Biden’s bucket mouth assertion that we are facing nuclear armageddon. 

Keep in mind, it’s been well known for several years that Putin’s inner circle is very very small. It’s mostly comprised of former KGB officials who served with Putin during his tenure there. Yet we are supposed to believe that the pushback by Russian officials is just part of the average ordinary working arguments they have? Pull the other leg. 

Now, supposedly Ukraine is claiming responsibility. 

BREAKING: Ukraine's intelligence services have taken credit for the bombing of the Crimean Bridge.

It remains unclear if it was a suicide attack or a bomb was hidden in a truck.

Russia's Foreign Ministry says the attack shows Ukraine's government is a terrorist regime. pic.twitter.com/LCHKnK40nw

— Clint Ehrlich (@ClintEhrlich) October 8, 2022

Which again, due also to various social media comments made by members of the Ukraine government, is leading people to speculate that this act of sabotage is potentially a first step in Ukraine trying to take back Crimea. 

Except that, in addition to members of the Russian government pushing back against Putin’s handling of the war, there is infighting within the military as well. 

Two of Putin’s top army lieutenants have ‘openly declared war’ on Defence Minister and staunch Putin loyalist Sergei Shoigu after a series of embarrassing defeats for the Kremlin in Ukraine.

Chechen boss Ramzan Kadyrov and founder of the Wagner ‘private army’ or militia Yevgeny Prigozhin have turned on the minister amid heavy defeats and losses over the last two weeks, The Guardian reports.

~Snip

Shortly after the Russian defeat last week at Lyman, a crucial railway hub in the Donetsk region, Kadyrov unleashed a withering attack on the Russian general staff and at the central military district commander Alexander Lapin.

In a series of messages on Telegram last week, the unlikely duo teamed up to launch scathing attacks on defence strategy.

‘The shame isn’t that Lapin is incompetent,’ Kadyrov wrote.

‘It’s that he’s being shielded from above by the leadership in the General Staff.

‘If it was up to me, I would bust him down to a private, take away his medals and send him with a rifle to the front in order to cleanse his shame in blood.’

‘Military nepotism will not lead anywhere good,’ he added.

Supposedly, according to the Russian government, the bridge and train tracks are reopened. So, how much did this hurt Putin? Was it an act of sabotage by Ukraine or from within? 

There are more questions than answers here. 

Feature Photo Credit: Ukraine Russia puzzle via Pixabay, cropped and modified