Crimea bridge attack on Putin's inauguration day may have major effect - Major Hetman

He expressed this opinion on Espreso.

"There's not much left, the inauguration is scheduled for May 7 for the president who is no longer quite legitimate, as the European Union believes, and that would be very good. You know, the Russians like to time their actions to fit certain dates, it's typical for them. This is not entirely correct from a military point of view, but sometimes war is a continuation of politics by other means, and it has a political component as well. If the Kerch bridge is hit on May 7, just before the inauguration, I think the effect will be very, very serious. You can imagine what a holiday it would be for us if, on the day of the inauguration, we received a message on all Russian public media that the Kerch Bridge had already been destroyed," Hetman emphasized.

At the same time, the reserve major suggests that Russian propaganda may release information about the destruction of the Crimean bridge only after May 10-11, as they will not spoil “the celebration of the sacred date of May 9.”

When asked how and with what the Crimean bridge could be destroyed, the veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war answered: "There are only three options: air, sea and sabotage attacks. If we say that there will be one of these three, we will be 100% correct, because there can be no other. Most likely, a combined attack will be used because it will be the most difficult for the Russians to prevent. I am sure that it will be some kind of sabotage, of course, the missiles we have can destroy the bridge's canvas with missiles, and the support should be destroyed with explosives from the water.”

• On April 26, The New York Times reported that Ukrainian forces will be able to use long-range ATACMS missiles to more effectively target the Russian forces in occupied Crimea.
• On April 27, Oleksandr Kovalenko, a military and political observer of the Information Resistance group, said that Crimea would be liberated no later than Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but not earlier than Zaporizhzhia or Kherson regions.
• Andrii Ryzhenko, 1st Rank Captain of the Ukrainian Navy Reserve, strategic expert at Sonata, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian Navy in 2004-2020, noted that the destruction or damage to the Crimean bridge would deprive the Russian Federation group of logistics in Crimea.