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Mission Failed: UK & US Helped Orchestrate Ukraine’s 2024 Crimean Bridge Attack

Russian air defenses thwarted a group strike of 12 US-made ATACMS tactical missiles on the Crimean Bridge in August 2024, with all the missiles destroyed.

The UK helped plan and execute Ukrainian strikes using ATACMS missiles targeting the Crimean Bridge in August 2024, a New York Times investigation revealed.

The blueprint of an attack to “bring the bridge down” was worked out jointly by the British, the US, and the CIA. Western-supplied ATACMS were supposed to “weaken vulnerable points” on the deck of the Crimea Bridge, while maritime drones would then “blow up next to its stanchions,” noted the outlet.

“But while the drones were being readied, the Russians hardened their defenses around the stanchions,” wrote the outlet.

The British military had considerable clout in Ukraine, it added, noting that “unlike the Americans, they had placed small teams of officers in the country” shortly after the conflict escalated in 2022.

The US had first pushed back at Ukraine’s plan to strike with missiles alone, but eventually backed down. On the night of August 16, Russian air defense systems successfully repelled the entire volley of enemy ATACMS missiles.

Ukraine previously attacked the Crimean Bridge on October 8, 2022, when a truck loaded with explosives blew up while crossing it, killing five people including the driver, and damaging both the road and rail spans.

Kiev denied responsibility until finally admitting that it bombed the bridge "in order to break the logistics of the Russians."

On July 17, 2023, a second explosion occurred after an attack by a naval drone. A family from Belgorod region who were driving across the bridge at the time were killed.