Timeline of ‘smoke screen’ on Crimea bridge: Russians complain about S-200 missiles again

The Crimean bridge is "restless" again - this afternoon, 12 August, unofficial sources first reported explosions near the Crimean Bridge, followed by a series of photos and videos on social media, which indicate that the bridge may have come under another attack.

The images show that after the reports of explosions, there was serious smoke in the area of the bridge - the occupiers say it was a "smoke screen", but in addition to puffs of white smoke (thermosmoke equipment), black smoke can also be seen in the images.

In general, as of today, the chronology of events on the Crimean bridge is as follows:

• 1:14 pm - the first reports of strikes on the bridge appeared, as well as a number of photos and videos with smoke in the area of the bridge;

• 1:30-1:35 pm - the smoke around the bridge dissipated;

• at around 2:00 pm - installation of a "new smoke screen, Russian occupiers say that the threat of an attack remains;

• at around 2:15 pm - Russian occupiers report the resumption of traffic on the Crimean bridge;

• at approximately 2:45 pm - traffic on the bridge is closed again;

• 3:00-3:05 pm - two more explosions are reported on the Crimean bridge;

• 3:10 - there is another smoke screen in the area of the bridge, 8 explosions are reported.

According to the "official" version of the governor of the temporarily occupied Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, Russian air defense allegedly shot down two missiles in the Kerch Strait, and the bridge itself was "not damaged", later Aksyonov reported another missile shot down.

At the same time, the Russian Defense Ministry says that the strike was carried out by "an S-200 anti-aircraft guided missile converted into a strike version" and that "the missile was timely detected and intercepted in the air". In other words, the Russian Defense Ministry's statement implies that only one missile was shot down, not two, as Aksyonov claims.

This is not the first time that occupying Russian forces have complained about attacks with modified S-200 missiles - for example, in early July this year, they claimed to have shot down such a missile near Kerch, and at the end of the same month they spoke of strikes on Taganrog and Kerch.

Turning to today's alleged attack on the Crimean bridge, it is still unclear whether the bridge was damaged, while Ukraine has not yet officially commented. In any case, such systematic attacks have at least a psychological effect.

It should also be recalled that less than a month ago, on July 17, Russia "overslept" another attack by ‘kamikaze’ boats on the Crimean bridge, during which two spans of the bridge were damaged.